What should a smart high school kid learn in three weeks, and how?
February 19, 2024 6:08 AM Subscribe
A high school senior I know has three weeks / 50-80 hours to work on an independent project. They want to spend the time learning something. It should be interesting and practical. Current thoughts include Excel, web development, Wikipedia editing. They're looking for course recommendations within those areas, and also other suggestions of possible projects. They want to develop a skill that they'll apply throughout their life.
The teenager is smart and a hard worker. They have good technical skills, and have a year of coursework each in Scheme, Java, and R along with some Python previously. They're interested in economics, public policy, history, voting rights, and games. They are politically active in their local community and state. They probably won't end up being a programmer for their career.
Can anyone recommend an Excel course that could be completed in three and would give them some mastery of Excel beyond the basics they've picked up on their own? Free is great, but they can spend some money if needed to get the right course.
(Bonus project: they have always lived in the Apple ecosystem. They could learn Excel and do it all on a Windows computer, to prepare them for the shock that will eventually come when they have to use Windows at work or for a project.)
Regarding web development: is there anything they can learn in three weeks that will actually be useful? (Possible lifelong applications include things like putting together a website for a club, a political campaign, a community group, etc). Are there courses in Wordpress that would give them practical skills? Could they learn to write Squarespace plugins? Is there some aspect of front-end, back-end, or other bespoke web development they could pick up in that amount of time? If so, do you have specific recommendations of courses?
Learning to be a Wikipedia editor isn't exactly a practical skills, but it's a good fit for the person, and could be a lifelong hobby. They like research and writing, and they value having good information. Is that amenable to a focused project like this, and if so, where would you recommend they start?
They are open to other suggestions as well. Things that they wouldn't want to do include cooking, graphic design, music, or travel.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.
The teenager is smart and a hard worker. They have good technical skills, and have a year of coursework each in Scheme, Java, and R along with some Python previously. They're interested in economics, public policy, history, voting rights, and games. They are politically active in their local community and state. They probably won't end up being a programmer for their career.
Can anyone recommend an Excel course that could be completed in three and would give them some mastery of Excel beyond the basics they've picked up on their own? Free is great, but they can spend some money if needed to get the right course.
(Bonus project: they have always lived in the Apple ecosystem. They could learn Excel and do it all on a Windows computer, to prepare them for the shock that will eventually come when they have to use Windows at work or for a project.)
Regarding web development: is there anything they can learn in three weeks that will actually be useful? (Possible lifelong applications include things like putting together a website for a club, a political campaign, a community group, etc). Are there courses in Wordpress that would give them practical skills? Could they learn to write Squarespace plugins? Is there some aspect of front-end, back-end, or other bespoke web development they could pick up in that amount of time? If so, do you have specific recommendations of courses?
Learning to be a Wikipedia editor isn't exactly a practical skills, but it's a good fit for the person, and could be a lifelong hobby. They like research and writing, and they value having good information. Is that amenable to a focused project like this, and if so, where would you recommend they start?
They are open to other suggestions as well. Things that they wouldn't want to do include cooking, graphic design, music, or travel.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions.
So...I'm a data analyst and I think a mini analysis on a topic of interest would be really interesting for them, cutting across several of the areas you mention.
They could 1) research and summarise the area's current research 2) re-create or create a unique piece of research by surveying classmates (or using an open-source dataset) 3) use Excel to analyse and present the results, within the context of (1). This would effectively be a piece of work that they could use to show experience in data analysis - of course doing something extra with R or Python (or instead of Excel) would also showcase programming skills, but it sounds like they already have that down (at least somewhat).
Topic could be as big or small as they like - for example gamer experiences of sexism/racism, or the environment and its impact on mental health, or the question of should phones be allowed in schools. I would caution them to remember that in asking surveys (point 2) that they can get rich data from a text field, but it's a lot harder/more time consuming to analyse than e.g. rate out of 10 how you feel about....!
posted by london explorer girl at 6:30 AM on February 19 [10 favorites]
They could 1) research and summarise the area's current research 2) re-create or create a unique piece of research by surveying classmates (or using an open-source dataset) 3) use Excel to analyse and present the results, within the context of (1). This would effectively be a piece of work that they could use to show experience in data analysis - of course doing something extra with R or Python (or instead of Excel) would also showcase programming skills, but it sounds like they already have that down (at least somewhat).
Topic could be as big or small as they like - for example gamer experiences of sexism/racism, or the environment and its impact on mental health, or the question of should phones be allowed in schools. I would caution them to remember that in asking surveys (point 2) that they can get rich data from a text field, but it's a lot harder/more time consuming to analyse than e.g. rate out of 10 how you feel about....!
posted by london explorer girl at 6:30 AM on February 19 [10 favorites]
I do yap at young people constantly to learn Excel. If there's $300 to throw at this, Leila Gharani's Power Excel Bundle (or if there's $700, get the whole Black Belt package), which will leapfrog over "how to format stuff" and basic formulas (this can be backfilled with free tutorials) to getting directly on a path to PowerQuery, DAX, and positioned to understand PowerBI, which will leave them with better Excel reporting skills than 75% of the CPAs, CFOs, miscellaneous accountants, FP&A people etc that I work with every day.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:36 AM on February 19 [12 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 6:36 AM on February 19 [12 favorites]
If they have some exposure to R and are interested in econ, I think learning R Shiny would be a huge leg up.
This tutorial is pretty good for beginners.
posted by advicepig at 7:07 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
This tutorial is pretty good for beginners.
posted by advicepig at 7:07 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
Don't do web development. Anything kid learns today will be out of date in five years (maybe three years) and they'll have to start over.
Excel is not going to change and is a pretty good idea.
I was personally thinking something manual skills-related, like learning how to sew clothing, or learning how to do basic woodworking, or plant a garden, or can fruits/vegetables. Learn how to bake bread.
These are skills that will be useful throughout life no matter what career they choose.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:09 AM on February 19 [21 favorites]
Excel is not going to change and is a pretty good idea.
I was personally thinking something manual skills-related, like learning how to sew clothing, or learning how to do basic woodworking, or plant a garden, or can fruits/vegetables. Learn how to bake bread.
These are skills that will be useful throughout life no matter what career they choose.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:09 AM on February 19 [21 favorites]
For Excel, I've always liked Chandoo, and he has a course for ~$150 https://chandoo.org/wp/excel-school-program/
Whatever course they choose, please implore them to make part of their learning Power Query. It's a force multiplier for using Excel, and will give them a leg up if they are ever in a position to have to use Power BI.
posted by Gorgik at 7:18 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
Whatever course they choose, please implore them to make part of their learning Power Query. It's a force multiplier for using Excel, and will give them a leg up if they are ever in a position to have to use Power BI.
posted by Gorgik at 7:18 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
The teen should connect to the local Democratic party (or other progressive party), progressive issue group, or candidate campaign. Any or all of them likely have projects the teen could work on and learn at the same time. Then, besides gaining skills and a portfolio piece, the teen could also gain references and break into a network (Source: am a local progressive activist with a background in all of these.)
posted by NotLost at 7:30 AM on February 19 [9 favorites]
posted by NotLost at 7:30 AM on February 19 [9 favorites]
I'm in HR, and my boss, who is a C level HR exec, says all the time that Excel is a crucial still that should be taught in high school with the same urgency as any core subject. You will have to use Excel in almost any job you have in any field, and being able to use it at an intermediate level (pivot tables, vlookups, etc, and not just being able to make a formula work at a point in time, but on a holistic level knowing the best path forward for any set of data) will make your work life considerably easier.
Are there more exciting subjects? Of course. But you'd be hard pressed to find something more actually, applicably useful to real life than Excel.
posted by phunniemee at 7:33 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
Are there more exciting subjects? Of course. But you'd be hard pressed to find something more actually, applicably useful to real life than Excel.
posted by phunniemee at 7:33 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
Given his interests, I would suggest Harvard CS50 for web programming. I haven't taken this one but I did CS50x and CS50P and liked them both. A person working full time for three weeks could probably get through it all, or make very substantial progress (they are designed for people with a day job or a full course load).
There are further courses that might pique his interest, on AI, cyber security, databases and a few other things.
You say he also has a grounding in Python but a basic computer science course can really shore up his knowledge here, and CS50x is a great candidate for that.
If none of those appeal, then he might want to take a step back and ask what interests him right now. Once he has a problem he wants to solve, it'll be much easier to decide what to learn.
Just brain storm a list of problems that he likes the sound of, and set himself the task of finishing a very simple project to address one of them. As adamrice said, there is a "bottomless pit" of technical knowledge one might build, be it in Excel or everything else. Until you know what you want to do, you don't really know what you need to learn. That's why I like CS50 courses - a good mix of conceptual knowledge and practical know-how that will benefit him even if he doesn't end up in a tech job.
If he is on the look out for ideas for projects, here are some of mine. I don't have the skills to do any yet, but you need a reason to learn. Feel free to steal:
- using machine learning to model upcoming election results
- compile historic data on electoral or sports results, use machine learning and live betting odds data to look for underpriced odds
- Mash together publicly available government procurement data and track how much public money certain suppliers receive.
- building a map to display publicly available crime data
- I am a runner and there's a lot of data in that sport. I think about building a live data pipeline of results from races.
More generally, it's good to just sift lists of publicly available data to see if any analytical projects jump out.
- there is plenty of government data floating around. In the UK, we have an open data platform.
- Kaggle has lots of datasets, as well as ideas for projects and competitions.
Regarding Excel. It is exceptionally useful in a corporate environment. But if you understand the basics of real coding, Excel's in-cell functions are pretty simple to pick up. It's all just simple syntax, and corporates tend to be pretty good at training their staff to do the basics with it. But using it well is really dependent on what you are doing for a living, and where you are doing it. If he is dead set on Excel, that's fine, but the advice remains to think of a personal project. In my personal life, I have used it to:
- create a personal finance tool to analyse my spending;
- perform financial forecasting to help me select a mortgage;
- undertake basic statistical analysis;
- plan holidays
- create a calculator to work out what my running paces should be when training for a marathon;
and lots of other things. Feel free to share if he needs inspiration.
posted by Probabilitics at 7:36 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
There are further courses that might pique his interest, on AI, cyber security, databases and a few other things.
You say he also has a grounding in Python but a basic computer science course can really shore up his knowledge here, and CS50x is a great candidate for that.
If none of those appeal, then he might want to take a step back and ask what interests him right now. Once he has a problem he wants to solve, it'll be much easier to decide what to learn.
Just brain storm a list of problems that he likes the sound of, and set himself the task of finishing a very simple project to address one of them. As adamrice said, there is a "bottomless pit" of technical knowledge one might build, be it in Excel or everything else. Until you know what you want to do, you don't really know what you need to learn. That's why I like CS50 courses - a good mix of conceptual knowledge and practical know-how that will benefit him even if he doesn't end up in a tech job.
If he is on the look out for ideas for projects, here are some of mine. I don't have the skills to do any yet, but you need a reason to learn. Feel free to steal:
- using machine learning to model upcoming election results
- compile historic data on electoral or sports results, use machine learning and live betting odds data to look for underpriced odds
- Mash together publicly available government procurement data and track how much public money certain suppliers receive.
- building a map to display publicly available crime data
- I am a runner and there's a lot of data in that sport. I think about building a live data pipeline of results from races.
More generally, it's good to just sift lists of publicly available data to see if any analytical projects jump out.
- there is plenty of government data floating around. In the UK, we have an open data platform.
- Kaggle has lots of datasets, as well as ideas for projects and competitions.
Regarding Excel. It is exceptionally useful in a corporate environment. But if you understand the basics of real coding, Excel's in-cell functions are pretty simple to pick up. It's all just simple syntax, and corporates tend to be pretty good at training their staff to do the basics with it. But using it well is really dependent on what you are doing for a living, and where you are doing it. If he is dead set on Excel, that's fine, but the advice remains to think of a personal project. In my personal life, I have used it to:
- create a personal finance tool to analyse my spending;
- perform financial forecasting to help me select a mortgage;
- undertake basic statistical analysis;
- plan holidays
- create a calculator to work out what my running paces should be when training for a marathon;
and lots of other things. Feel free to share if he needs inspiration.
posted by Probabilitics at 7:36 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
OSX is a good place from which to learn command line tools and unixy stuff, as well as the basics of open source software. I learned that stuff in college last century and it's still very useful to me now. Working on stuff like voting rights often means tiny budgets and so having access to free powerful tools is a big benefit.
$15 gets them a copy of Pico-8 and they could definitely make a cool small video game in that time period, there are lots of great tutorials out there, that's prob the best combo of fun and useful imo.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:41 AM on February 19
$15 gets them a copy of Pico-8 and they could definitely make a cool small video game in that time period, there are lots of great tutorials out there, that's prob the best combo of fun and useful imo.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:41 AM on February 19
Could the student maybe help out with their parents' taxes this year? Paying taxes is a life-long skill and likely a completely opaque process to someone who has never had to wrestle with them. The kid will likely be paying taxes in a few years anyway, so some insight into the process would be helpful.
posted by SPrintF at 7:45 AM on February 19 [4 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 7:45 AM on February 19 [4 favorites]
I'd look into learning Jupyter, which is one of the big platforms that data scientists are using now to model and visualize large amounts of data. It would definitely look good on a resume no matter what field they work in.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:47 AM on February 19
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:47 AM on February 19
You will have to use Excel in almost any job you have in any field.
This is an overstatement. Many jobs aren't even desk jobs. And not all desk jobs even touch Excel (such as often in publishing, for example).
posted by NotLost at 7:56 AM on February 19 [11 favorites]
This is an overstatement. Many jobs aren't even desk jobs. And not all desk jobs even touch Excel (such as often in publishing, for example).
posted by NotLost at 7:56 AM on February 19 [11 favorites]
sounds like that they could use the three weeks away from all that and spend some time thinking on their own future with fewer guardrails.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 8:05 AM on February 19 [11 favorites]
posted by MonsieurPEB at 8:05 AM on February 19 [11 favorites]
Presumably they are headed to college? Some of the answers above strike me as both a bit overly ambitious and maybe somewhat redundant if the kid will be able to learn some of this stuff in a classroom setting before too long. It's much easier to learn skills if you have a project involved, with a professor guiding you.
They are politically active in their local community and state.
In three weeks, I wouldn't bother trying to figure out a totally new topic/skill, but use this as an opportunity to dig deep into their local connections before they go off to college. I'd ask their local connections how they could best serve their needs with this time, and go from there.
posted by coffeecat at 8:10 AM on February 19 [4 favorites]
They are politically active in their local community and state.
In three weeks, I wouldn't bother trying to figure out a totally new topic/skill, but use this as an opportunity to dig deep into their local connections before they go off to college. I'd ask their local connections how they could best serve their needs with this time, and go from there.
posted by coffeecat at 8:10 AM on February 19 [4 favorites]
Also, consider doing something with artificial intelligence.
posted by NotLost at 8:16 AM on February 19
posted by NotLost at 8:16 AM on February 19
You will have to use Excel in almost any job you have in any field, and being able to use it at an intermediate level (pivot tables, vlookups, etc, and not just being able to make a formula work at a point in time, but on a holistic level knowing the best path forward for any set of data) will make your work life considerably easier.
It REALLY varies job to job. I work for a website, I sit at a desk all day, and I only use Excel for, essentially, a to do list (coordinating with other team members what's done, what isn't done, and the details of what is finished; in other words, data entry). In fact, other than that use case and sometimes reporting, I don't think anyone in my division uses Excel much. I use it far more at home for my personal projects because I simply enjoy spreadsheets.
I wouldn't recommend learning Excel during those three weeks. Learning Excel will come when needed (if a company hires them and then needs them to know more Excel than they already know, the company will pay for the training if they are worth working for and have the money). The student could also learn the basics of Excel, enough for most entry level office jobs, by just using it and watching some YouTube videos / reading websites, maybe tracking their progress with something as a project.
posted by Meldanthral at 8:17 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
It REALLY varies job to job. I work for a website, I sit at a desk all day, and I only use Excel for, essentially, a to do list (coordinating with other team members what's done, what isn't done, and the details of what is finished; in other words, data entry). In fact, other than that use case and sometimes reporting, I don't think anyone in my division uses Excel much. I use it far more at home for my personal projects because I simply enjoy spreadsheets.
I wouldn't recommend learning Excel during those three weeks. Learning Excel will come when needed (if a company hires them and then needs them to know more Excel than they already know, the company will pay for the training if they are worth working for and have the money). The student could also learn the basics of Excel, enough for most entry level office jobs, by just using it and watching some YouTube videos / reading websites, maybe tracking their progress with something as a project.
posted by Meldanthral at 8:17 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
They like research and writing?
Spend 1 week in a retirement home learning the story of someone's life. Spend 1 week researching those facts. Spend one week writing a short biography.
Learning to listen and help someone express their memories/pass on their legacy is a far grater skill that will be in high demand than.....learning excel.
posted by haplesschild at 8:28 AM on February 19 [16 favorites]
Spend 1 week in a retirement home learning the story of someone's life. Spend 1 week researching those facts. Spend one week writing a short biography.
Learning to listen and help someone express their memories/pass on their legacy is a far grater skill that will be in high demand than.....learning excel.
posted by haplesschild at 8:28 AM on February 19 [16 favorites]
As long as we're projecting things we think are valuable onto this particular senior (and I'm operating under the assumption they're attending college in the future):, if they have an interest in economics and some programming background, they could probably work on some basic data visualization in python (or teach themselves some R). Learning to manipulate and clean data through code is a useful skill if they go onto study econ/poli sci/etc in college. And it's fun. They could use some open data from the census (e.g., the American Community Survey) or FRED.
(Nothing wrong with learning Excel! I teach college economics and I sometimes wish students came in with a bit more experience with it, but if they're already conversant in python then there's a wide world of cool stuff they can do that would be very annoying to do by hand and will set them up for coursework later, since if they study anything in the social sciences they will presumably take some quantitative data tools courses).
posted by dismas at 8:53 AM on February 19
(Nothing wrong with learning Excel! I teach college economics and I sometimes wish students came in with a bit more experience with it, but if they're already conversant in python then there's a wide world of cool stuff they can do that would be very annoying to do by hand and will set them up for coursework later, since if they study anything in the social sciences they will presumably take some quantitative data tools courses).
posted by dismas at 8:53 AM on February 19
I like the wikipedia editing idea because it's a project that can scale to the amount of time they have and there's an output afterwards that you can point to.
The number of students in my STEM graduate program who couldn't use excel at a basic level was shocking and a real handicap for them at first, but getting the basics should take more like a half day. More important is understanding how spreadsheets work and what they can do and using them for data manipulation, which I'd guess your student has a grounding in from programming courses.
Relevant to the programming - analyzing publicly available datasets, such as the Census, to address political/social issues of interest. Again, easy to knock together a small report that can be pointed to as a project outcome and possibly shared with an organization they work with. Do any of those orgs take interns? Can they get mentorship from someone in the org / group?
posted by momus_window at 9:04 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
The number of students in my STEM graduate program who couldn't use excel at a basic level was shocking and a real handicap for them at first, but getting the basics should take more like a half day. More important is understanding how spreadsheets work and what they can do and using them for data manipulation, which I'd guess your student has a grounding in from programming courses.
Relevant to the programming - analyzing publicly available datasets, such as the Census, to address political/social issues of interest. Again, easy to knock together a small report that can be pointed to as a project outcome and possibly shared with an organization they work with. Do any of those orgs take interns? Can they get mentorship from someone in the org / group?
posted by momus_window at 9:04 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
I had a seminar course at university where one of the project options was correcting and improving a significant Wikipedia article related to the field of study. I think most people expected it'd be easier than writing their own essay from scratch, but to do it well one had to understand the goals of the platform itself and learn how to use it as a tool to communicate.
posted by teremala at 9:22 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
posted by teremala at 9:22 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
Does this kid have bureaucratic and financial life skills? Do they know e.g. how to rent an apartment, what to look out for, how to find tenant laws for their area and know their rights, how to understand a contract, etc.? Do they understand what kinds of financial accounts they should maintain and how to maintain them - and what kinds of financial things they should stay away from? Do they know how to make a budget and do taxes?
If not, then for a tangible project they could make some online resources explaining all these adulting things to graduating high schoolers - it could be a website, video series, both...
posted by trig at 9:36 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
If not, then for a tangible project they could make some online resources explaining all these adulting things to graduating high schoolers - it could be a website, video series, both...
posted by trig at 9:36 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
I understand the desire to use the time for something “marketable” or “productive” but I think the beauty of youth is just getting to explore things- especially those that aren’t “productive.” Maybe it’s a craft that interests them, learning to use a sewing machine, basic carpentry skills, diving in to a particular area of history or genre of book that they find interesting, creating their own comic strip, improving swimming form. Cultivating interests outside a computer/smartphone is an excellent goal for anyone who may find that their future career requires 6+ hours a day at a computer.
posted by raccoon409 at 9:44 AM on February 19 [8 favorites]
posted by raccoon409 at 9:44 AM on February 19 [8 favorites]
How about doing something very different, like a basic carpentry course, a basic home repairs class, a yoga intensive, a sewing course, a cooking course; these and many others will serve them well. It sounds like this kid already spends a lot of time staring at screens.
posted by mareli at 9:49 AM on February 19 [16 favorites]
posted by mareli at 9:49 AM on February 19 [16 favorites]
Figuring out how to get an IR camera, finding thermal leaks, fixing them or working out ROI in BOTH dollars and CO2 for the ones that can’t be DIY’ed…
For someone who already has some programming, I would suggest SQL basics before Excel practice because the SQL should be closer to the underlying math.
posted by clew at 10:12 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
For someone who already has some programming, I would suggest SQL basics before Excel practice because the SQL should be closer to the underlying math.
posted by clew at 10:12 AM on February 19 [1 favorite]
What about personal finance and money management? I hear so many kids today complaining that they don't know about how to manage money. Alternatively if I had that kind of time I would learn how to play piano.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 10:18 AM on February 19
posted by tafetta, darling! at 10:18 AM on February 19
I think a mini analysis on a topic of interest would be really interesting for them, cutting across several of the areas you mention.
I think this is a great idea, and pursuing it would probably lead them to realize that they will need certain skills as they go (e.g. Excel to track their data etc.). In addition, it would also help to hone their research, problem-solving and project management capacities as they go. These are incredibly valuable, if a bit intangible, and will increase their confidence in tackling other things in the future.
If there is any cash to throw at the project, it could be very interesting to give them a budget and see how they manage the need for training, reading materials, etc..
posted by rpfields at 10:21 AM on February 19
I think this is a great idea, and pursuing it would probably lead them to realize that they will need certain skills as they go (e.g. Excel to track their data etc.). In addition, it would also help to hone their research, problem-solving and project management capacities as they go. These are incredibly valuable, if a bit intangible, and will increase their confidence in tackling other things in the future.
If there is any cash to throw at the project, it could be very interesting to give them a budget and see how they manage the need for training, reading materials, etc..
posted by rpfields at 10:21 AM on February 19
Thinking grandly, what can you learn as an older teen that will stay with you throughout life? Folks are thinking about things like technologies, but those can be outdated quickly, and it sounds like this kid is already pretty tech-savvy. I think life changing experiences and life skills aren't developed on a computer screen, but in the world, interacting with people who are different from you. Since they don't want to travel, I think a local community project, preferably hands on and not only involving their computer skills, could be the best approach.
I'd suggest they reach out to local organizations who share their political goals and affinities. Maybe Sunrise if they're interested in climate, or the campaign for a local (not national!) candidate they find compelling.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:55 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
I'd suggest they reach out to local organizations who share their political goals and affinities. Maybe Sunrise if they're interested in climate, or the campaign for a local (not national!) candidate they find compelling.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:55 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
May I suggest data wrangling? Sometimes known as ETL ("Extract, Transform, and Load") out there in the Real WorldTM?
Find a source of data (several have been linked upthread). Get that data into Excel. Get that data OUT of Excel. Get it into and out of SQLite. Get it into and out of R. Did you mess it up anywhere? Probably it was Excel's fault! Find out why and what you can do to avoid it -- because you (student) may not use Excel, but I guaran-damn-tee that other people around you will, and that unwisely.
Try to answer questions using the data (also suggested upthread). Find places where the data is messy or inconsistent and learn to clean it up (allow me to suggest OpenRefine, my favorite cleanup tool). Try to parse CSVs with regex (this is a bad, bad idea, but you will learn some regex AND you will learn when not to use it).
Try messing with dates and doing date math, IF YOU DARE AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA mine is an evil laugh.
Anyway yeah. Data wrangling. You can learn a lot in three weeks that will be useful in many different contexts pretty much forever.
posted by humbug at 11:32 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
Find a source of data (several have been linked upthread). Get that data into Excel. Get that data OUT of Excel. Get it into and out of SQLite. Get it into and out of R. Did you mess it up anywhere? Probably it was Excel's fault! Find out why and what you can do to avoid it -- because you (student) may not use Excel, but I guaran-damn-tee that other people around you will, and that unwisely.
Try to answer questions using the data (also suggested upthread). Find places where the data is messy or inconsistent and learn to clean it up (allow me to suggest OpenRefine, my favorite cleanup tool). Try to parse CSVs with regex (this is a bad, bad idea, but you will learn some regex AND you will learn when not to use it).
Try messing with dates and doing date math, IF YOU DARE AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA mine is an evil laugh.
Anyway yeah. Data wrangling. You can learn a lot in three weeks that will be useful in many different contexts pretty much forever.
posted by humbug at 11:32 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]
Teach them some manual skills, and then have them write a piece about it at the end that find parallels with -- and differences from -- purely digital skills they already had.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:49 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
- Change the car oil and swap out a few internal bulbs.
- Sew up a pair of pants by copying some favorite sweatpants/pajamas, or maybe make a hoodie from whatever cheap Polartec fleece you can find in the craft store's remnants bin.
- Get some LEDs and an 8266 controller, download the free WLED software, and learn how to solder. (The "audio reactive" fork of WLED will, with a cheap solid state microphone, make the lights dance along with your music!) Then see if there are any things around the house which can be fixed simply by opening the case and repairing loose solder joints.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:49 AM on February 19 [3 favorites]
I would suggest looking for a more experiential opportunity. Use those three weeks to try and go and observe a job he/she might be interested in. Sit in at a music studio. Go hang out at your rep's office. Be around a large construction site. Stuff like that. Many people love sharing their profession if only someone asks them. And just being there two or three weeks is much less a commitment for them than, say, ramping up for an intern. Our daughter had a similar senior year project like this. She called a local surgical practice. They took her into surgery most every day and explained procedures as they did them. This literally changed her life. She's now a full doctor and a cardiology fellow. Seeing a profession he/she is considering up close can propel, or deflect the arc as they head into college.
posted by lpsguy at 2:13 PM on February 19 [7 favorites]
posted by lpsguy at 2:13 PM on February 19 [7 favorites]
Or go serve at a soup kitchen several times per week, and journal the changing emotions.
Or work on a farm (look for one with CSA program, they always want free help) and learn where Food cones crom.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:18 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
Or work on a farm (look for one with CSA program, they always want free help) and learn where Food cones crom.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:18 PM on February 19 [1 favorite]
nthing the Excel idea and adding that they should learn to use Excel with Data Sources to pull live data from SQL databases. In many offices that will make them appear to be magicians
posted by TimHare at 9:13 PM on February 19 [2 favorites]
posted by TimHare at 9:13 PM on February 19 [2 favorites]
I would take a course from a local community college on automotive repair and maintenance. Practical.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:01 PM on February 19 [3 favorites]
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:01 PM on February 19 [3 favorites]
My suggestions, based on what skills I learned in high school and college that have been most useful in my adult life:
Excel
Statistics
Cooking
Communication- being able to make and give a good power point presentation
Skills I wish I had learned:
Managing personal finances
Basic car repair
posted by emd3737 at 12:46 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]
Excel
Statistics
Cooking
Communication- being able to make and give a good power point presentation
Skills I wish I had learned:
Managing personal finances
Basic car repair
posted by emd3737 at 12:46 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]
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"Learning Excel" is kind of a bottomless pit. I think a smart kid could learn the fundamentals in a day; the stuff one would need to learn after that is probably better learned on an ad-hoc basis as needed.
Something that might dovetail well with what the kid already knows, and could be valuable for someone interested in public policy, would be learning SQL, since that would enable one to work with large datasets. Another building-block skill is Regex (if they haven't already learned that). Again, these can be bottomless pits.
I think it helps to have a specific project or problem in mind.
posted by adamrice at 6:28 AM on February 19 [4 favorites]