Databases Project


This semester has been beneficial for me as I now understand a little bit more about databases. I honestly had not had much exposure to them before; if I had, I would have been very confused about them. In the past, I related a database as something that could only be physical (like a room where you save files and data), which did not sound appealing to me. But now, I understand that we have digital databases that make life so much easier for us when handling large amounts of data compared to using spreadsheets in excel or google sheets.


Moreover, this class offered a project that helped us apply our database knowledge from a spreadsheet to the SQ lite database program. My partner and I chose to work on an Opioids dataset from the CORGIS website. This dataset focuses on the mortality rate of opioids categorized by year and people using the drugs (race, gender). The first step in building the database was to build an ER diagram, which was quite challenging initially. Secondly, we had to organize all possible queries to reflect all the information from the dataset into our database. This was the harder part, but not impossible.

As we were working on the project, I had a lot of realizations. First, I began to connect the important use of databases and how they relate to my field of study, biology. For instance, when I was learning about making the ER diagram, I realized that having a visual aid before building the actual database is very helpful in understanding the whole concept of a database. Then, the querying portion of the project taught me that you have to be very precise about what you are typing since one error can mess up the database, which is what happened to my group! Typos. Upon this incident, we were being more careful with our queries. 

Before taking this class, I had no idea why they could be at all helpful to me in my field of study. However, during the semester, I became more knowledgeable about databases and concluded that they are related to Biology. Biologists and researchers use databases to sort out information. For example, taxonomic information (to classify species). I am more intrigued to learn more about databases and might enroll in a database class in the future. I feel the more skills I gain in databases, the more career opportunities I will have. 

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