Meet the data (and Git)

Research Methods — Week 1 Application

Welcome back

Today’s goals

By the end of this session, you will have:

1. Loaded real UK energy data in WebR
2. Made your first plots of the biomass story
3. Set up your personal GitHub repo
4. Committed your first .R file

• [5 min] Recap the biomass question from the content session. “Remember: we left with an open question — is biomass carbon-neutral? Today you get the data.”
• Reassure: if the pre-work felt shaky, this session is your safety net.

Questions?

Submit questions anonymously:

PollEv.com/geol

text geol to 07480 781235

• Open the Poll Everywhere Q&A activity before the session and leave it active throughout.
• Questions appear in your Poll Everywhere presenter view; upvoted questions rise to the top.
• Address during transitions or at the end of concept blocks, not mid-explanation.
• Reset (archive) the activity between sessions so questions don’t carry over from the previous week.

The biomass question

“Is UK biomass electricity carbon-neutral?”

This week: explore the data. Get a feel for the numbers.

Next week: make proper figures and start making the case.

• Don’t try to answer the question today. Today is about becoming comfortable with the data and with R.

First steps in WebR

🎓💻 Guided walkthrough

Open the course page

🖥️ Navigate to the Week 1 exercise page

Everyone should see the WebR editor.

• [5 min] Get everyone to the page. Help anyone who can’t load it. Common issues: slow first load (WebR is downloading R packages), browser compatibility (Chrome/Edge best).

Loading the data

elec <- read.csv("data/uk_electricity.csv")
head(elec)

• What are the columns?
• What years does it cover?
• What units are used?

• [10 min] Live walkthrough. Load the data, show head(), str(), nrow(). Narrate: “This is like pd.read_csv() in Python. head() is like df.head().”
• Point out: columns are fuel types, values are TWh.

Your first plot

plot(elec$year, elec$biomass_twh,
     xlab = "Year", ylab = "TWh",
     main = "UK biomass electricity generation")

“What’s the first thing you notice?”

• The trend is steeply upward. Students should notice the rapid growth.
• Ask: “How does this compare to what you expected?”
• If someone asks about the scale — good. “Is that a big number?” comes next week, but plant the seed now.

Independent exercises

✏️💻 Exercises 1–4

Work through the exercises

The WebR page has scaffolded exercises with hints.

Aim for at least exercises 1–3:

1. Plot biomass generation over time
2. Add coal to the same plot — what do you see?
3. Calculate mean and SD of biomass for the last 5 years
4. What fraction of UK electricity was biomass in the most recent year?

Finished early? Try the extension exercises.

• [20 min] Students work independently. Circulate with demonstrators. Common issues: $ syntax, forgetting quotes around column names, confusion about subsetting.
• Don’t rush through this. Students need hands-on time.

Git

📋🎓💻 Setting up your repo

Why Git?

Your code needs to be:

• Saved — not just in the browser
• Versioned — so you can go back if something breaks
• Visible — so your demonstrator can see your progress

Git does all three. GitHub Desktop makes it painless.

• [5 min] Brief motivation. Don’t oversell Git — just frame it as “how professionals save their work.”

The workflow

Every session:

1. Open GitHub Desktop
2. Pull any changes
3. Do your work in .R files
4. Commit with a message
5. Push

That’s it.

Two clicks and a sentence.

Your commit history becomes your learning record.

• Emphasise simplicity. Resist the urge to explain branches, merges, or anything advanced. Week 5 will cover collaboration.

Live demo

🖥️ Switching to GitHub Desktop

1. Clone your personal repo (from GitHub Classroom link)
2. Open the folder — see the starter files
3. Create week1.R — paste your WebR code
4. In GitHub Desktop: see the change → commit → push

• [15 min] Do this live on screen. Go slowly. Narrate every click.
• Show the commit message: “Add week 1 exploration” — not just “stuff.”
• Show GitHub.com afterwards: “See? Your code is now on the internet. Your demonstrator can see it. You can access it from any computer.”

Your turn

✏️📋 Clone, commit, push

Do it yourself

1. Clone your personal repo via GitHub Desktop
2. Create week1.R — paste your best code from WebR
3. Commit with a descriptive message
4. Push to GitHub

Raise your hand when you’ve pushed successfully.

• [15 min] This will take longer than expected. Git setup always does. Common issues: authentication (sign in via browser), repo not found (wrong Classroom link), “nothing to push” (forgot to save file).
• Demonstrators prioritise students who are stuck. Students who finish early go back to WebR exercises.

Discussion

💬 What did you find?

What did the data show?

“What did you find in the data?”

• Biomass has grown rapidly
• Coal has collapsed
• Biomass is now a significant fraction of UK electricity

• [15 min] Pull the room together. Collect observations.
• Ask: “If biomass is counted as zero-carbon, what happens to the UK’s official emissions figures?” Let students reason through this.
• Don’t give the answer. They’ll dig into it in Week 2.

One more question

“If biomass is counted as zero-carbon, what happens to the UK’s official emissions figures?”

We’ll dig into this next week.

• Let this hang. Curiosity is the goal. Some students will already sense the tension — biomass has replaced coal, but if its emissions are counted as zero, the books look better than reality.

Wrap-up

Before you leave

• Your week1.R is committed and pushed
• You can see it on GitHub.com

Next time: “What do the numbers say?”

You’ll learn ggplot2 and start asking: “Is that a big number?”

• Ensure every student has committed. This is the non-negotiable outcome for today.
• Students who haven’t finished the WebR exercises can continue at home — their code persists in the browser via localStorage.