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Foundations of Data Science combines three perspectives: inferential thinking, computational thinking, and real-world relevance. Given data arising from some real-world phenomenon, how does one analyze that data so as to understand that phenomenon? The course teaches critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets, including economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. It also delves into social issues surrounding data analysis such as privacy and study design.
The curriculum and format is designed specifically for students who have not previously taken statistics or computer science courses. Students with some prior experience in either statistics or computing are welcome to enroll and often find that this course offers a new perspective that blends computational and inferential thinking. Students who have taken several statistics or computer science courses should instead take a more advanced course like Data 100.
Our primary text is an online book called Computational and Inferential Thinking: The Foundations of Data Science. This text was written for the course by the course instructors. A complete PDF of the textbook can be found in the Student Materials Google Drive.
The computing platform for the course is hosted at data8.datahub.berkeley.edu. Students find it convenient to use their own computer for the course. If you do not have adequate access to a personal computer, we can help you borrow a machine; please contact data8@berkeley.edu.
You are not alone in this course; the staff and instructors are here to support you as you learn the material. It's expected that some aspects of the course will take time to master, and the best way to master challenging material is to ask questions. For questions, use Ed. We will also hold in-person office hours that offer drop-in help on assignments and course material.
Your lab TA will be your main point of contact for all course related questions/grade clarifications. The TAs are here to support you so please lean on your lab TA if you need more support in the class or have any questions/concerns.
Small-group tutoring sessions will be available for students in need of additional support to develop confidence with core concepts. In past semesters, students who attended have found these sessions to be a great use of their time. Details about sign-ups will be available a few weeks into the term.
Live lectures will be held from Monday to Thursday from 11:10am-12pm, and on Friday from 11:10am-1pm in Dwinelle 155; students are expected to attend live lectures synchronously due to the fast pace of the summer. Recordings of these sessions will be provided within 1-2 days of the lecture. Slides and lecture examples will be provided on the course website.
This course has two 2-hour labs per week, held on Mondays and Wednesdays. All students are required to attend the first lab section, on Monday 6/17. If you are unable to attend the first lab section, please reach out to your assigned TA once you receive your section assignment.
Weekly labs include a discussion worksheet covering recent material and a programming-based lab assignment that develops skills with computational and inferential concepts. Lab assignments will be released on the same day as they are due. We guarantee that all lab assignments will be released before the first lab section.
This summer, lab meetings are two hours long on Monday and Wednesday. The first hour focuses on the discussion worksheet and group problem solving. The second hour is dedicated to completing the programming-based lab assignment. To receive credit for lab, you must attend both parts. If you complete the lab assignment before the lab period is over and get checked off by the course staff, you may leave early and still receive credit. If you stay for the complete lab period, make significant progress on the lab assignment, and get checked off by the course staff, you will receive full credit for the lab even if you haven’t completed the whole lab assignment.
You must submit your lab notebook to Gradescope. You will receive full credit for the lab assignment if you are checked off and you submit. Your GSI will only check you off if you have either finished the lab notebook or worked until the end of the lab and made substantial progress.
Lab sessions will not be recorded and are only offered in-person.
Bi-weekly homework assignments are a required part of the course. You must complete and submit your homework independently, but you are allowed to discuss problems with other students and course staff. See the Learning Cooperatively section below.
Homeworks will be released on Tuesday and Friday, and are due that same Friday and the following Tuesday night, respectively.
Data science is about analyzing real-world data sets, and so you will also complete two projects involving real data. On each project, you may work with a single partner; your partner must be from the lab you enrolled in. Both partners will receive the same score.
If you submit a homework or project 24 hours before the deadline or earlier, you will receive 5 bonus points on that assignment.
The midterm exam will be held on Friday, July 12 from 11am-1pm PT. Please note the date and time carefully.
The final exam is required for a passing grade, and will be held on Wednesday, August 7 from 11am-1pm PT.
There will be no alternate exams for the midterm and the final exam for those with exam conflicts. If you have exam accommodations on file with the DSP office, they will be taken into account for both the midterm and final exams.
Grades will be assigned using the following weighted components. Every assignment is weighted equally in its category. For example, there are 2 projects, so each project is worth (20 / 2)% = 10% of your grade.
| Activity | Grade | | Lab Credit | 10% | | Homeworks | 20% | | Projects | 20% | | Midterm | 20% | | Final | 30% | | EPA | 2% [Extra Credit] |
Instructors not TA's will respond to any questions regarding grade bins or letter grades.
Extra credit participation points were created to encourage people to be good academic citizens, in a way that traditional grades could not capture. This can help boost you over a grade boundary if you’re close to one. Scoring is confidential, and your score will not be shared - please do not ask staff members any questions about this.
You may demonstrate your engagement in Data 8 through attendance and participation during live lecture, lab section, office hours, and EdStem. For example, actively asking / answering questions during lecture will help you accumulate extra points in this category. Additionally, there are several ways to engage with the course staff: lab sections, tutoring sections, and office hours. At the end of the semester, your participation in these section activities will be scored according to attendance and engagement. The best way to score full points in this section is to attend your lab section/lecture, sign up for tutoring, and make sure your TA knows your name!
The maximum number of extra credit percentage points you can accumulate throughout the semester is 2%.
Grades for Homeworks, Projects, and Labs will be posted on Gradescope after the assignment’s due date. Solutions to the assignment and common mistakes will also be posted on Ed. It is up to you to check the solutions and request a regrade request before the regrade deadline (typically 5 days after grade release). Regrade requests can be made on Gradescope. Any regrade request past the deadline will not be looked at; this is to enforce the same deadline across all students, so please do not delay in reviewing your work.
For the midterm exam, there will be a regrade request submission window. Please review the solutions and common mistakes before submitting a regrade request. Requests where a rubric item was incorrectly selected or not selected will be reviewed, but any regrade requests that ask to change the rubric or for partial credit will be ignored.
All assignments (homework, labs, and projects) will be submitted on Gradescope. Please refer to this tutorial for submitting assignments.
The deadline for all assignments in this course is 11 PM PT. Assignments submitted until 11:59 PM on the day of the deadline will not be marked as late. Homework and lab submissions after this time will not be accepted.
We understand that life happens. For this reason, your two lowest homework scores and two lowest lab scores will be dropped in the calculation of your overall grade. If you have an ongoing situation that prevents you from completing course content, please contact your lab TA.
Projects will be accepted up to 2 days (48 hours) late. Projects submitted fewer than 24 hours after the deadline will receive 2/3 credit, and projects submitted between 24 and 48 hours after the deadline will receive 1/3 credit. Projects submitted 48 hours or more after the deadline will receive no credit.
Due to the fast pace of the summer offering, we are unable to offer assignment extensions for the vast majority of students. As mentioned above, you are provided two lab and homework drops for emergency situations that may come up. Only after using all your assignment drops, if you continue to encounter further emergencies beyond your control, please do not hesitate to reach out. Please fill out the Extenuating Circumstances Form, and a course staff member will reach out to you and provide a space for conversation, as well as to arrange accommodations as necessary. Note that you will be asked to provide supporting documentation, and these requests will be approved on a case-by-case basis.
We encourage you to discuss course content with your friends and classmates as you are working on your assignments. No matter your academic background, you will learn more if you work alongside others than if you work alone. Ask questions, answer questions, and share ideas liberally.
If some emergency takes you away from the course for an extended period, or if you decide to drop the course for any reason, please don’t just disappear silently! You should inform your lab TA and your project partner (if you have one) immediately, so that nobody is expecting you to do something you can’t finish.
We will provide appropriate accommodations to all students enrolled in Berkeley's Disabled Students Program (DSP). To ensure that you receive the appropriate accommodations, have your DSP specialist submit a letter confirming your status and accommodations.
If you’re not enrolled in DSP, or are in the process of being onboarded by DSP, you may still be eligible for accommodations. We also aim to provide fair and appropriate accommodations to any students who, because of extenuating circumstances, may need them. Please reach out to data8@berkeley.edu if this is the case and our DSP Lead will get back to you.
All DSP and accommodations-related materials for this course are kept in a repository separate from the rest of the course materials that is visible only to the instructors and selected Lead GSIs.
For any DSP and accommodations-related communications, please reach out to data8@berkeley.edu. This inbox will be visible to future members of course staff, so if you ever have a communication that you wish to remain private, let us know and we can delete the email exchange once the conversation is resolved.
You must write your answers in your own words, and you must not share your completed work. The exception to this rule is that you can share everything related to a project with your project partner (if you have one) and turn in one project between the two of you, and if you are attending a lab session and have a lab partner you can share everything related to that lab with your lab partner.
Make a serious attempt at every assignment yourself. If you get stuck, read the textbook and go over the lectures and lab discussion. After that, go ahead and discuss any remaining doubts with others, especially the course staff. That way you will get the most out of the discussion. It is important to keep in mind the limits to collaboration. As noted above, you and your friends are encouraged to discuss course content and approaches to problem solving. But you are not allowed to share your code or answers with other students. Doing so is considered academic misconduct, and it doesn’t help them either. It sets them up for trouble on upcoming assignments and on the exams.
In addition, posting course content such as homeworks, projects, and exams on any 3rd party websites or submitting your own answers on outside sites/forums is considered academic misconduct.
You are also not permitted to turn in answers or code that you have obtained from others. Not only does such copying count as academic misconduct, it circumvents the pedagogical goals of an assignment. You must solve problems with the resources made available in the course. You should never look at or have in your possession solutions from another student or another semester.
Please read Berkeley's Code of Conduct carefully. Penalties for academic misconduct in Data 8 are severe and include reporting to the Center for Student Conduct. They might also include a F in the course or even dismissal from the university. It's just not worth it!
When you need help, reach out to the course staff using Ed, in office hours, and/or during labs. You are not alone in Data 8! Instructors and staff are here to help you succeed. We expect that you will work with integrity and with respect for other members of the class, just as the course staff will work with integrity and with respect for you.
Finally, know that it's normal to struggle. Berkeley has high standards, which is one of the reasons its degrees are valued. Everyone struggles even though many try not to show it. Even if you don't learn everything that's being covered, you'll be able to build on what you do learn, whereas if you cheat you'll have nothing to build on. You aren't expected to be perfect; it's ok not to get an A.
The main goal of the course is that you should learn, and have a fantastic experience doing so. Please keep that goal in mind throughout the semester. Welcome to Data 8!
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