teaching_notes.txt

# 2021-10-12 & 14 Report on a Zoom-based workshop

Since this workshop was held during the plague years, it was a Zoom-based workshop. We had discussion via a Slack channel. The general format was one instructor leading the workshop (taking turns), plus several helpers who help out during challenges in the Zoom breakout rooms. Everyone also keeps an eye on Slack.

We told people to use RStudio Cloud for preference, but that they could use their own laptop if they wanted to. One person had problems installing a package on their own laptop, which seemed to be due to network problems connecting to the default CRAN mirror.


The schedule we used was:

10:00am           Log on early if you want help setting up
10:10am           Begin
11:20am - 11:30am Break
12:40pm - 12:50pm Break
14:15pm           End
14:15pm - 14:30pm We will stay online to answer questions

We finished to the end of "data frames" on the first day. On the second day we finished at 12:50 (rather than the planned 2:15), so the schedule could be made a little shorter.


On the first day, we started with a short slideshow, and then did an icebreaker activity in breakout rooms where everyone introduced themself and said a little about the data they worked with.

It's important to give breaks about hourly: biobreak, snack time, strech legs.


For the data frames quiz portion, I used the Slack SimplePoll app:

/poll "```highest <- geo$name[ head(order(geo$lat, decreasing=TRUE), n=10) ]``` The name of a variable to store a value to?" "highest" "geo" "name" "head" "order" "geo" "lat" "decreasing" "n" anonymous

/poll "```highest <- geo$name[ head(order(geo$lat, decreasing=TRUE), n=10) ]``` The name of a variable to retrieve the value from?" "highest" "geo" "name" "head" "order" "geo" "lat" "decreasing" "n" anonymous

/poll "```highest <- geo$name[ head(order(geo$lat, decreasing=TRUE), n=10) ]``` The name of a column to get from a data frame?" "highest" "geo" "name" "head" "order" "geo" "lat" "decreasing" "n" anonymous

/poll "```highest <- geo$name[ head(order(geo$lat, decreasing=TRUE), n=10) ]``` The name of a function to call?" "highest" "geo" "name" "head" "order" "geo" "lat" "decreasing" "n" anonymous

/poll "```highest <- geo$name[ head(order(geo$lat, decreasing=TRUE), n=10) ]``` The name of an argument to a function call?" "highest" "geo" "name" "head" "order" "geo" "lat" "decreasing" "n" anonymous



# 2025-03-03 & 04 Report on a two-half-day in-person workshop

This was a free workshop, in person, run over two half days. We has 11 attendees from 22 registered.

We had allocated 4.5 hours per day. However 4 hours per day would probably be enough (including breaks).

Day 1:

12:30pm begin
- MGBP manager did introductions
- Went around the room doing introductions for all attendees
- Introductory slideshow
1:00pm Begin demonstrating
2:20pm Finished "starting in R", 20 min break
2:40pm Start data frames.
4:15pm We're up to factors. Feels like we've covered a lot today.
5:00pm We finished data frames.

This day felt a little long.

Day 2:

12:36pm Recap of data frames, especially pivoting and joins.
1:00pm Begin ggplot2.
2:30pm Break
2:50pm Begin summarizing section.
4:15pm finished rather early.