====== Sophia Parde - Data Skills Pathway Workspace ======


===== Student Information =====

**Name:** Sophia Parde

**Major:** Social Sciences

**Year:** Junior

**Semester:** Fall 2026

**Email:** sophia.parde@und.edu


===== Mentor Information =====

**Mentor Name:**

**Mentor Department / Program:**

**Mentor Email:**

**Meeting Schedule:**


===== Project Interest =====

  * Medieval history
  * Medieval disease - the Black Death
  * Data visualization
  * Cartography
  * Statistics


===== Project Question or Problem =====

I am interested in researching


===== Project Brief =====

**Project Title:**

**Project Goal:**

**Data Source:** Open-access scientific data

**Method or Tools:** ArcGIS Pro

**Expected Output:** Poster presentation

**Why this project matters:** Limited localized (city-scale) datasets on the effects of the Black Death in medieval Europe


===== Learning Goals =====

  * Develop and maintain organized and accurate workflow documentation
  * Identify and implement note-taking strategies to assist with managing and analyzing research data
  * Efficiently work with and standardize large datasets containing inaccuracies while preserving original data


===== Work Schedule =====

  * Weekly Data Skills Pathway meeting: __Thursdays 5:30-6:20pm CT__
  * Mentor meeting:
  * Independent work time:


===== Data Sources =====

  * Data source 1:
  * Data source 2:
  * Data source 3:


===== Tools and Skills =====

  * Apple Numbers / .CSV files
  * ArcGIS Pro
  * Other visualization tools


===== Papers and References =====

  * Reference 1:
  * Reference 2:
  * Reference 3:


===== Weekly Progress Updates =====

==== Week 1 ====

**Date:** __September 3-9, 2026__

**What I completed:**

  * Attended weekly meeting
  * Completed pre-survey and syllabus quiz

**What I learned:**

  * Became familiar with course structure and expectations

**Next steps:**

  * Identify research area and project topic


==== Week 2 ====

**Date:** __September 10-16, 2026__

**What I completed:**

  * Attended weekly meeting
  * Identified research area(s) + researched potential localities (Africa, Asia, Europe)
  * Attempted to login to wiki and Jupyter sites

**What I learned:**

  * Received guidance on research area and choice of project topic

**Paper, figure, dataset, tool, script or output shared:**

  * Preferred project research area

**Question or blocker:**

  * Unable to login to wiki (no account)
  * Unable to access Jupyter site (need UND VPN)
  * Unable to find African or Asian city population datasets

**What I tried:**

  * Attempted to use personal VPN to access Jupyter site (did not work)

**Next steps:**

  * Attempt to login with wiki credentials once provided
  * Attempt to download UND VPN onto computer to access Jupyter site
  * Identify specific project topic + locality


==== Week 3 ====

**Date:** __September 17-23, 2026__

**What I completed:**

  * Attended meeting
  * Logged into wiki and Jupyter site
  * Created student workspace
  * Researched city population datasets
  * Downloaded data files onto Jupyter site

**What I learned:**

  * Basic Python commands on Jupyter site

**Paper, figure, dataset, tool, script or output shared:**

  * Student workspace
  * Python outputs on Jupyter

**Question or blocker:**

  * Unable to download UND VPN onto computer (Linux distro not supported)

**What I tried:**

  * Attempted to download UND VPN on different computer (was successful)

**Next steps:**

  * Continue researching population datasets
  * (Re)gather original data for project


==== Week 4 ====

**Date:** __September 24-30, 2026__

**What I completed:**

  * Located original project datasets online and in project folder
  * Identified cities in China that experienced plague prior to 1340s
  * Identified Chinese population sources (national and regional)

**What I learned:**

  * 

**Paper, figure, dataset, tool, script or output shared:**

  * 

**Question or blocker:**

  * Datasets in project folder and within files not organized - cannot identify what was done when or why

**What I tried:**

  * Attempted to sort project datasets by date (successful)
  * Attempted to investigate most recent dataset file to identify initial and final sets (unsuccessful)

**Next steps:**

  * Continue to sort through project folder to find datasets of interest
  * Begin to analyze original datasets (as sourced online) for geographic and/or mortality data