Database Creation

After a few false starts with the MySQL session, things seemed to go smoothly. (I initially understood part of the MySQL query to be placed in <>, which is what the small font on the video from UACBT-VTC looked like. After trying to execute my commands several times but receiving error messages, I switched to the tutorial provided by the MySQL community, and saw that the signs were not <> but ( ). After that it was easy to follow along with the tutorials, and I sat with my laptop, watched the videos and mirrored them on my host PC, and did the same with the tutorial from the MySQL community.

It took me hours to analyze and decide how I wanted to present my database proposal. The deeper I looked at what I wanted to work with, the more confused I became. I decided to propose a database based on the Math-Science Institute papers that I am adding to ContentDM. Certain choices were easy—there were items and creators, each with obvious attributes. But the third entity presented a challenge. I knew it had to be related to the other entities, and needed attributes of its own. Although related, I felt it also had to be something which stood independently of the other two. I initially chose the Science Track the students were enrolled in, but as I worked with using the specific track as the primary key it soon became obvious that it wouldn’t work. Since there were only three tracks, yet multiple courses the students take in each track, the primary key would not be unique in each case. I found myself working on this problem in those occasions of light sleep during the night. Finally after much deliberation today, I’ve selected the courses for which the research was done to be the third entity, and the individual course to be the primary key. I may be overanalyzing all this and I hope that what I present is logical.
I’ve done a cursory reading of all the assigned readings for this unit. I know I nee to go back and re-read them more in depth. I’ve also looked out on the web for different examples and explanations caouse it never hurts to see thngs from a different point of view.