Week 1 — Foundations
May 18 – 22, 2026
This week we get everyone set up with R, RStudio, and Quarto, and cover the absolute basics of the R language. By Friday you’ll have written your first reproducible document and learned the pipe.
Daily plan
| Date | Topic | Slides & Notes | Code & Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon May 18 | Course intro & what is R? | Slides · Page · PDF | day1-demo.R · currentvotestats.xlsx |
| Tue May 19 | R, RStudio, console · vectors · data types | Slides · Page · PDF | day2-follow-along.R |
| Wed May 20 | Functions, packages · tidyverse | Slides · Page · PDF | day3-activity.R |
| Thu May 21 | Quarto basics | Slides · Page · PDF | day4-activity.qmd |
| Fri May 22 | Quiz 1 · pipe and chaining syntax | Slides · Page · PDF | day5-activity.qmd |
Due this week
Readings (due at 9:35 a.m. on Perusall)
- (Optional) Monday: Data Computing Ch 1 (§1.1–1.5) — what tidy data is
- Tuesday: Data Computing Ch 2 (§2.1–2.8) — R, RStudio, vectors, objects
- Wednesday: Data Computing Ch 3 (§3.1–3.5) — basic R commands
- Thursday: Data Computing Ch 4 (§4.1–4.7) — files and Rmd documents
- (Optional) R For Data Science Ch 28 — Quarto
- Friday: Data Computing §3.6 — chaining syntax (the pipe)
Assignments (Canvas & In-class)
- Wednesday May 20: HW 0 (setup confirmation) — due 11:59 p.m. on Canvas
- Friday May 22: HW 1 — due 11:59 p.m. on Canvas
- Friday May 22: Quiz 1 — in class
Heads up for next week
- Data Computing Ch 5 (§5.1–5.6) for Tuesday May 26 — graphics intro.
- No class Monday May 25 (Memorial Day).