Introduction to CODAP

Section Introduction to CODAP

CODAP (Common Online Data Analysis Platform) is a free, web-based data analysis tool designed specifically for educational purposes. It provides an intuitive interface for exploring data without requiring programming knowledge.

Subsection The CODAP Interface

Let’s explore the basic components of the CODAP interface:

Screenshot of the CODAP interface showing the built-in Mammal example. — Figure 6. The CODAP Interface

Key components include:

Tables: Display data in rows and columns
Graphs: Create visual representations of data
Calculator: Perform calculations and create new attributes
Map: Plot geographic data
Text: Add explanatory notes to your document

You can access CODAP at codap.concord.org

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codap.concord.org

. No login is required to get started, though you can save files to your local computer or link it to your Google drive, if you have one.

Subsection Your First CODAP Exploration

Let’s dive into CODAP with a simple dataset.

Activity 4. CODAP Basics.

In this activity, we’ll explore a simple dataset in CODAP to get familiar with the interface.

(a)

Open CODAP in your web browser by going to codap.concord.org

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codap.concord.org

(b)

Click on "Examples" in the main menu and select "Mammals" from the list.

(c)

Explore the table by:

Scrolling through the data
Sorting columns by clicking on column headers
Resizing columns by dragging the column borders

(d)

Create a graph by:

Clicking on "Graph" in the main toolbar
Dragging "Body Weight" from the table to the horizontal axis
Dragging "Brain Weight" from the table to the vertical axis

(e)

Explore the relationship between body weight and brain weight by examining the graph. What patterns do you notice?

This basic exploration gives you a sense of how CODAP makes it easy to view and visualize data. Throughout this course, we’ll build on these skills to perform more sophisticated analyses.

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