Fall 2019 Workshops

 

  • Introduction to Stata I (first of three sequential workshops). Location and registration at http://bit.ly/introStataF19
    • Offered 3 times: Sun, Sept 8 4-6:30pm --- Sun, Sept 8 7-9:30pm --- Tues, Sept 10 7-9:30pm
    • This introductory session is based on a survey conducted on workshop participants. We cover the basics of opening files, running commands, creating summary statistics and graphics, dealing with outliers, manipulating variables, and labelling variables. We also work through how to deal with errors (which are inevitable, but manageable, in any statistical package). This will be hands on, practical experience: each participant will be using the program in real time.
  • Preparing for a Data Analysis Interview and Take Home Assignment, Part I: Data analysis. Location and registration at http://bit.ly/interviewPrepF19.
    • Offered 3 times (updated Sept 17): Tue, Sept 24 5:30-7:30pm ---- Wed, Sept 25 12:30-2:30pm. ---- Wed, Sept 25 5:30-7:30pm
    • It is common to receive a take home assignment as part of a data science/data analysis interview. We cover many common requirements of such an assignment using a dataset from IMDB. This includes technical skills such as importing data, recoding variables, and creating graphics and regressions. More importantly, we discuss what to focus on (data validity, limitations, and theoretical development) and how to present both your results and code. Pizza provided.
  • Preparing for a Data Analysis Interview and Take Home Assignment, Part II: Data manipulation. Location and registration during Part 1 of the Data Analysis Interview series. 
    • Offered 3 times (updated Sept 17): Tue, Oct 1 5:30-7:30pm ---- Wed, Oct 2 12:30-2:30pm. ---- Wed, Oct 2 5:30-7:30pm
    • This workshop covers a second type of take home assignment: data manipulation. Again using the IMDB dataset, we discuss how to create a new version of an existing dataset and why people would find this useful. We cover for loops and conditionals in more depth. Pizza provided.
  • Merging and Manipulating Data in Stata. Location and registration at http://bit.ly/manipDataF19
    • Offered 2 times: Thurs Oct 3, 5:30-7:30pm --- Fri Oct 1, 12:30-2:30pm
    • Data rarely comes in a clean format; erroneous data need to be fixed, the format needs to be changed, variables need to be combined or split, and data need to be merged together. This workshop covers how to reshape and reorganize your data. Pizza provided.
  • Interpreting Regressions. Location and registration at http://bit.ly/regressionsF19
    • Offered 2 times: Tues Oct 8 5:30-7:30pm --- Wednesday Oct 9 12:30-2:30pm
    • Many books and papers present regression results to support their arguments. There are some simple ways to scan these tables that let you quickly understand the main points and common pitfalls. We cover how to read regression tables and graphs efficiently, what the numbers for coefficients and statistical significance mean, and common ways regressions are misused. Pizza provided.
  • Introduction to Stata II (prerequisite Intro Stata II or instructor permission). Location and registration by attending Intro to Stata I or instructor permission.
    • Offered 3 times: Tue, Oct 22 7-9:30pm ---- Sun, Oct 27 4-6:30pm ---- Sun, Oct 27 7-9:30pm
    • Using a dataset on county demographics, presidential voting, and deaths of despair, this workshop covers several additional basics of data analysis. This includes scatterplots, boxplots, standard errors/standard deviations/the normal distribution, and the fundamentals of developing useful theories. Pizza provided.
  • Data Science at Swarthmore (45 minutes). Location and registration at bit.ly/dataScienceSwatF19
    • Offered 2 times: Mon, Oct 28 12:30-1:05pm --- Tues, Oct 29 4:05-4:50pm
    • This 45 minute workshop will give an overview of how to hone your data science skills at Swarthmore. We will cover which classes develop these skills (including some less obvious ones!) and other resources, such as the Social Sciences Quantitative Laboratory, that are available. Pizza provided.

  • Mapping Data in R. Location and registration at http://bit.ly/mapsRF19

    • Offered 1 time: Mon, Nov 4 7-9pm

    • R is a data analysis language that can be used to create impressive visuals. Participants will learn how to import data from the census and create cartographs (maps displaying quantitative data) of US areas that interest them.

  • Data Analysis through Visualization. Location and registration at bit.ly/visualizationF19

    • Offered 1 time: Tues, Nov 12 6-8pm

    • Data visualization is a powerful tool to communicate a point, but can also be misused. We cover how to create maps and basic descriptive images in R, and show how they can be manipulated to decieve. Panera provided.

  • Introduction to Stata III (prerequisite Intro Stata II or instructor permission). Location and registration via attendance at prior workshops or instructor permission.

    • Offered 3 times: Sun, Nov 17 8 4-6:30pm --- Sun, Nov 17 7-9:30pm --- Tues, Nov 19 7-9:30pm

    • Using a dataset on county demographics, presidential voting, and deaths of despair, this workshop covers how to use Stata to create regressions, test regression assumptions, manipulate data to make it satisfy regression assumptions, and understand model specification and interaction terms.