Lab report module 5

The purpose of this assignment is for you to demonstrate basic familiarity with importing, inspecting, cleaning, manipulating, visualising, and interpreting archaeological data.

We are investigating house-size data from a global dataset of archaeological sites. What does this data tell us about the origins of inequality, and how it contributes to long-term stability in ancient societies?

Here's what you need to do:

1. Create a new RStudio project (New Project -> New Directory -> New Project), and
   • save your project as archy-208-module-5-bmarwick (replace my UW ID with yours), you should get a new, empty folder, ready to work in
   • Download the CSV file with the data here Download Download the CSV file with the data here and Download the image file here, these come from Kohler et al 2017 Links to an external site. which is our target article for this week that you should read to ensure you understand the topic of this lab.
   • use your desktop folders to move this data file into your RStudio project directory that you just created.
   • File names are vital here: do not rename the CSV file or the image file. We can't grade your assignment if the file names are not exactly as specified here (check for numbers magically appearing at the end of the filename, that means you've downloaded it multiple times, you should delete the other copies and remove that number from the filename).  
2. In your new project, create a new Quarto file (File -> New file -> Quarto Document -> click "Create"), and:
   • save your qmd file as archy-208-module-5-bmarwick.qmd (replace my UW ID with yours),
   • delete all the template content
   • Ensure your YAML front matter has:
     • an effective title (how?), e.g. in the form of a question or statement
     • your name, hint: author: "Ben Marwick"
     • the date automatically inserted, hint: date: now
     • the output format set as html, hint: format: html: self-contained: true
     • warnings and messages suppressed in the output, hint: execute: warning: false
     • increase the image quality of the plots, hint: fig-dpi: 600
     • customize the date label, hint: title-block-published: "Last updated"
3. In your qmd file, use these headings, and write a total 8-12 fully-formed sentences containing specific details and concrete nouns that answers these questions:

• • Introduction: What is the aim of your report? See Thursday's lecture slides Download Thursday's lecture slides for the specific aims to mention here (1-2 sentences containing specific details and concrete nouns).
  • Data: What type of data are you analysing and where does it come from? (2-3 sentences)
    • use at least two examples of inline R code to get meaningful summary values (do not hard-code any values, e.g. 'two')
    • ensure you have a code block that cleans your data,
    • your code must uses pipes
    • your code must use the mutate function
    • your code must use the select function
    • your text must cite the publication that originally presented the data in APA style (how?), and include it in your reference section.
  • Exploratory data visualisation: What do you observe when you visualise the data? (3-4 sentences containing specific details and concrete nouns)
    • you need to write R code that produces at least one boxplot, barplot and scatterplot
    • your plots need human-friendly axis titles
    • you need to create at least one grid of plots using cowplot package
    • you need to label the data points on one plot
    • you need a caption and cross-reference for each figure
    • Each visualisation needs at least one complete sentence containing specific details and concrete nouns describing your observations of the plots.
  • Conclusion: What is your conclusion about why wealth disparities increased at different rates in different parts of the world? (3-4 sentences containing specific details and concrete nouns).  You need to use the terminology we introduced in the lecture, and that is used in the target article, Kohler et al 2017 Links to an external site.
    • you need a statement that answers this question and cross-references one of your plots: How and why does social inequality change over time in different parts of the world?
    • you need a statement that answers this question and cross-references one of your plots: How does social inequality vary by subsistence adaptation type and political system?
  • References: include the full reference in APA style (without hanging indent) for all items that you cite in your text

5. Render your qmd file to output a HTML document.

• • Check that in your qmd file your CSV file name and image file names are exactly the same as ours.

6. Upload to Canvas your two files (please do not zip them):

• • your qmd file, correctly named, with correct YAML, with code and text, and
  • your HTML file, containing the output of your code and text, with no warnings or messages from the code visible

If you get stuck at any point here please let us know at any time by posting a message to our Discord workspace. We want you to succeed!

Additional resources: 

• Quarto Figures and Captions