Exploring Environmental Data (ENS-215)
Winter 2026
| Lectures and Labs | Homework | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|
Note: In addition to the homework listed below, each week you will also complete the class notebooks as part of your homework.
Week 9 and 10
- Continue to Work on your final projects. Submit any missing work.
Week 8
- Continue to Work on your final projects
Readings
Week 7
Work on your final projects
Week 6
Readings
Tidyverse style guide, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5
- Excellent guide to proper usage of style, formatting, and syntax in R. Read this with care and where applicable you should begin implementing these style tips in your code. Note that “style” is more than just cosmetic – good style makes your code human readable and makes sharing and editing code significantly more efficient and less prone to error.
Week 5
Readings
Assignments
- DataCamp Reshaping Data with tidyr chapters 1 (“Tidy data”), 2 (“From wide to long and back”)
- Assigned: 3-Feb
- Due: 10-Feb
- DataCamp Joining Data with dplyr chapters 1 (“Joining Tables”), 2 (“Left and Right Joins”)
- Assigned: 3-Feb
- Due: 10-Feb
Week 4
Readings
- ModernDive Ch: 2
- R for Data Science (R4DS): “Visualize” chapter (The visualize section of this textbook goes into great depth on a range of data visualization topics in R/ggplot. This reading is optional, though will be useful to refer to throughout the rest of the term.)
Week 3
Readings
- ModernDive Ch: 3
- R for Data Science (R4DS): Data transformation (the R4DS reading is optional and provides an alternative presentation of the material in ModernDive)
Assignments
DataCamp Introduction to the Tidyverse chapters 1 (“Data wrangling”) and 2 (“Data visualization”)
- Assigned: 20-Jan
- Due: 27-Jan
DataCamp Introduction to the Tidyverse chapter 3 (“Grouping and summarizing”)
- Assigned: 20-Jan
- Due: 27-Jan
Week 2
Assignments
1. Complete the “Conditionals and Control Flow” and “Loops” lessons in the DataCamp “Intermediate R course”
- Assigned: 13-Jan
- Due: 20-Jan
2. Complete the “Functions” lesson in the DataCamp “Intermediate R course”
- Assigned: 13-Jan
- Due: 20-Jan
Week 1
Readings
Assignments
1. Download R and RStudio: You will first need to download R and then RStudio. To download R go to this link and download R. You will see links for Mac and Windows users (see screenshot below). Make sure to select the appropriate one for your computer. Download the program and then install it.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed R, then you will need to get RStudio. Go to this link scroll down a bit and then you will see links for Mac and Windows users (see screenshot below). Make sure to select the appropriate one for your computer. Download and install the software.
- Assigned: 6-Jan
- Due: 8-Jan
2. Accept the invite to our DataCamp class and complete “Introduction to R”
Click the invite link here and join our class group. You will need to use you union.edu email address when creating your account.
- Assigned: 6-Jan
- Due: 8-Jan (accept invite); 13-Jan (complete “Introduction to R” assignment)
- Note: You should accept the DataCamp invitation immediately
3. Get a binder to hold your course notes and bring to all future classes
4. Sign up for Posit (RStudio) Cloud
You will receive an email invitation to join our Posit (RStudio) Cloud group. You should accept this invitation and create an account if you haven’t done so already.
- Assigned: 6-Jan
- Due: 8-Jan
5. Complete course intro survey
- Survey link here
- Assigned: 6-Jan
- Due: 8-Jan
Mason Stahl (2026)
Union College
