Background:
The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with some experience exploring and analyzing data without using an information visualization system.
Tasks:
Below is a dataset (that can be imported into Excel) about cereals. You should explore and analyze this data using Excel or simply by hand (drawing pictures is fine), but do not use any visualization tools; that means do not create charts or visual representation of any kind. Your goal here is to perform an exploratory analysis of the data set, better understand the data set and its characteristics, and develop insights about the cereal data.
Your report should consist of three small sections on a single page.
First, list (bullet list of items) five “insights”, chunks of knowledge, or deeper questions that you either encountered or gained while exploring the data. Even if you come up with more, only list your five best insights. An insight could be some understanding of the data and its characteristics that is not relatively obvious or intuitive. It is something that most people might not realize initially. Note that an insight or knowledge chunk simply may be a deeper question that arose in your mind while exploring the data. And your analysis may not have been sufficient to answer the question.
Second, write one paragraph about the process you used to do the exploration and analysis. Did you load the data into Excel, work manually, or do both? What did you do in Excel? Did you draw pictures? Just tell me (briefly) what you did.
Third, write one paragraph about challenges or problems that you encountered in doing the analysis this way. Did anything limit or frustrate you? If nothing did, perhaps there was something that was more difficult than you thought it should be. Nothing is perfect, so you should be able to list some potential issues here.
To sum up, your assignment should have a bullet list of five items followed by two paragraphs.
Grading:
The quality of the insights you listed. We are looking for things that we find interesting or perhaps unexpected. This is subjective. (10 points, 2 points for each insight)
For the second and third sections (10 points each paragraph), we will evaluate if you did what the assignment asked.
Please proofread your submission before submitting it and make sure it is free of spelling and grammar issues. (10% of the grade.)
Data Set
The data set should be pretty self-explanatory. The Manufacturer is a one letter code with the expected mapping (Q-Quaker Oats, P-Post, G-General Mills, K-Kelloggs, R-Ralston Purina, N-Nabisco) and Type is C (cold) or H (hot). Interpret other attributes to the best of your ability given the information available.
[“cereals data” is in the excel document attached in the main question]
—
Background:
The goal of this task is to give you some practice examining and evaluating data without the use of an information visualization technology.
Tasks:
A cereal dataset (that may be imported into Excel) is provided below. You should study and evaluate this data using Excel or just by hand (drawing sketches is fine), but no visualization tools should be used; that is, no charts or visual representations of any type should be created. The purpose of this exploratory analysis is to better comprehend the data set and its properties, as well as to produce insights regarding the cereal data.
On a single page, your report should be divided into three separate pieces.
First, make a list of five “insights,” pieces of knowledge, or deeper insights.
