Course Materials

Slides, Assignments, and Resources

CMPSC301 :: Data Science

Welcome to the course materials hub! Here you will find all lecture slides, assignments, labs, and downloadable resources organized by week. Check back regularly for updates and new content.

Note

W1. Welcome Week!

  • Syllabus

  • Getting to Know You: Welcome Survey

  • Getting to know your neighbor Pair-up with another person in the class to ask the following interview questions. Write down their answers – you will be introducing them during next class using several of the below personal facts.

  • Get to know your peer by asking the following questions

    • What is your name, and what would you like us to know about you?
    • Where is home?
    • What is your favorite part about life at Allegheny College so far?
    • What experience, if any, do you have with programming, statistics, mathematics, or working with data?
    • What is one thing you hope to learn or be able to do by the end of this course?

  • Installing necessary software for the course (if anyone needs help!)

W2. Introduction to R Basics

  • R Fundamentals, Part 1 (Installing R and RStudio, Variables, and Basic Operations)
  • Lab 1: RStudio and R Basics
  • Activity 1: Variables and Probability

W3. R Fundamentals Part 2 (Data Structures & Advanced Concepts)

  • R Fundamentals Part 2 (Data Structures & Advanced Concepts)
  • Activity 2: Data Origins

W4. R Fundamentals Part 3 (Dplyr Data Manipulation, and Visualization)

  • Data Manipulation & Cleaning Part 1
  • Lab 2: Data frames, Statistics and Visualization in R
  • Activity 3: Data Manipulation and Visualization

W5. R Fundamentals Part 3 (Missing Data, Data Cleaning, and Visualization)

  • Data Manipulation & Cleaning Part 2
  • Lab 3: Video Game Sales and Ratings Analysis
  • Activity 4: Working with Missing Data

W6. Visualization with ggplot()

  • Visualizations in R with ggplot2

W7. Visualization with plotly

  • Interactive Data Visualization with plotly
  • Activity 5: Analysis; Coffee Deserts and Oases (Mapping with ggplot2 and plotly)

W8. Probability Distributions

Important

Midterm Exam for CS301

The midterm exam will be held on Thursday, 22nd October 2026 at 2:30pm (during lab time).

I encourage you to start preparing for the exam by reviewing the material covered in the first eight weeks of the course, focusing on the challenge problems and key concepts. A study guide will be provided closer to the exam date. The exam will be paper-based, closed-book and closed-notes.

Materials are updated throughout the semester. Check back weekly for new content!