2  Card Exercise for Data Modeling

Here are four images:

Image one Image two
Image three Image three

3 Task One

Use either pen and paper.

Write a short description of these four objects. Entirely free form. About 3 or four sentences only.

4 Task Two

  • Discuss your description (with partner)
  • Circle or mark nouns and adjectives.

5 Task Three

  • Form into five groups overall (~5-6 members)
  • Narrow down to two kinds of adjectives (make “color” one of them)

6 Task Four

Create a string database: 1. Using the yellow post-its write: - the name of each item - the set of colors - your other adjectives 2. Using the string, join up objects with the words that describe them.

7 Task Five

On the table in front of you, create three tables, one for Objects, one for Colors, one for your other adjective. Use the large pink post-its to name the tables.

Name a column using the blue post-its. Call that column “name”, use copies of the yellow postits to add data to that column.

In relational databases we need a different way to represent the ends of the strings. For this we use ids.

7.1 Image Credits

Images obtained via Creative Commons search.