Overview
Welcome to the 2nd part of 73!
Your 73 journey so far has been heavily scaffolded with much hand-holding. You now need to gradually practice applying the knowledge gained so far to solve problems independently. The second half of 73 will facilitate this in two steps. The first (Application Challenge) will get you to work on a given problem. The next step (Mini Project) will allow you more freedom to pick a problem of your choice. Since this can still be overwhelming to handle individually, you will work in groups to help each other whenever possible.
Learning Objectives
There are many benefits to be reaped from the second half of the course. The ones I am focussed on are:
- Appreciate the breadth of possibilities that computational techniques can unlock.
- Engage in collaborative work to effectively utilise each group member’s strengths, thereby collectively accomplishing the assigned tasks.
- Gradually gain the confidence necessary to write your own code independently.
- Develop your ability to utilise resources from both within the course and external sources to support your learning and problem-solving.
The Structure
A new tool: Colab
Now that we focus on working as a group, we need an avenue to work collaboratively. For this, we will use a new online tool from Google called Colab. You only need a Google account to access it. More details of how what to do appears in another chapter.
You might wonder why we are not using GitHub and ReviewNB for this. While Git and GitHub are top-class tools, I am concerned that learning the mechanics of using them (pushing, pulling, resolving conflicts, and merging) might distract you from Python and science, given you have only about four weeks for the Application Challenge and Mini Project.
The Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base is a collection of examples where programming (in the guise of Python) is used for scientific purposes. These should give you a flavor of what computing can do for science. The material in the Knowledge Base is more or less self-contained.
You are not meant to consume all of the Knowledge Base. Instead, pick and choose items that interest you and are relevant to the Application Challenge your group has selected. You might have to learn a thing or two from one part to make sense of another. How deeply you want to do this is up to you.
Other important details
The importance of working in a group
Participating in group work offers a chance to develop and hone vital communication and strategic skills that will be invaluable for future endeavours. Working together on a problem is a great learning experience. It lets you see how others think, learn from their ideas, and improve your own by defending your thoughts. Plus, you’ll spend time helping each other, ensuring everyone contributes – and that’s a good thing for learning.
For those of you who might be tempted to dismiss all this as a cliché, I would like to share how, even recently, I have (unfortunately) observed how academic collaborations break up and how graduate students quit due to challenges due to poor interpersonal skills. So, you should always welcome any opportunity to cultivate self-awareness and gain insights into your behaviour and interactions within a group. I am not suggesting that this group experience is a panacea, but it will definitely help.
Finally, I like to distinguish between working as a group and working as a team. The former is a temporary, lukewarm marriage of convenience, while the latter is the coming together of like minds in a conducive environment of tolerance and support to achieve a goal. If you are lucky, you will also enjoy being in a team.
Always remember the individual viva
Please bear in mind that the content of the second half will be central to the individual viva. So, as a group member, you should be nurturing and mindful that all your group mates keep up and understand what is happening. As an individual, you should ensure that you are abreast of everything done or submitted by the group. Come the viva(which is 35% of your grade), you will have to defend this content on your own.