Data+Bases+211

Data Bases organized methods of storing information. Data bases can organize any type of information. i.e. photos, music, items for sale, student attendance, license plates, addresses, geographic information. This unit on data bases will teach us

Electronic Data bases are amazing ways to store information, especially if you can quickly look through them. In the past several years data bases have become very user friendly.

Did you know you have been building and preparing to publish a database in computer 2 class for the past couple of days? Yes, the Summer 2010 MEHS Student Directory is an example of a database. Our database started out electronic and when complete we will make several hardcopies of it. The Electronic portion of our database will not be used by the public ever. (It is a privacy issue.)

Over the next week or so we will study and use all kinds of data bases. We will visit where data bases are stored and learn what it takes to be a database manager.

At the end of our unit on data bases, we will access a data base of hidden objects. These objects are hidden all over the world and you can find them by zip code and the use of a hand held GPS. We will use GPS devices to find objects that are hidden around Sitka. We will also use these devices to hide our own objects and play hide and seek between class teams.

Day 1: To get started go to the Computer 2 data folder find the Data base folder and open the Data base Handout #1 document. Open the document in MS word and fill it out. When you are done save it to the drop box in the Data base folder.

Day 2: Today we are going to look at the mother of all United States Government data bases: [] Every 10 years the government researches the demographics of the nation to determine how many people live here now? Where do they live within our borders? These numbers tell us how things are shifting or changing as time goes by. There are many interesting facts to be gathered and studied after each census. Go into the Computer 2 data folder and Complete the handout in the US Census folder in the data base unit folder. When you have completed it, save it in the US Census drop box. Enjoy the research and find something to share that you didn't know before!

If you finish this assignment look at this website that collects data about our world: []

Day 3: Finish your assignments from Day 1 & 2. (some of you are not done, check your on-line grades.) Amazon.com is an amazing data base of used and new items for sale. One of the best features is that some items qualify your whole order to be free shipping! Today we will be working on a wish list on Amazon.com. You will open a www.amazon.com account, if you don't have already have one. You will probably want to connect your Amazon.com account to an email address besides your mehs.us, if you can.You will be shopping for items that you need/want to begin next school year in September. Save these items in a "wish list." The items you put in your wish list do not have to be expensive, but this is to be a real list that you can refer to in August to order exactly what you want. I will need to see your wish list to give you a grade. A+ = 20 items on your wish list. It goes down hill from there. You can make your wish list public or private. You will want to access this list in August to actually purchase these items.

Note: If you finish this, prepare for tomorrow's guest speaker by writing questions to ask this Database Manager.

Day 4: We will have a Database Manager guest speaker talking to us about all the complex parts of managing a data base. We will be taking notes and asking questions on paper and then after the guest speaker has left each person will enter their gathered information into a MS word document and put them into our Database guest speaker drop box. Our next activity is to learn about how GPS navigation systems work. Watch the video at this link: []