CIS 9002 – Oracle Database Design NAME: ______________________

DD Lab: Section 1
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These assignments originate from the section Student Resources, Practice Activities,
I have given you all the questions, some partial solutions and questions for you to
answer and submit for grading. Look for ____________ questions to answer.

Database Design
1-1: Introduction to the Oracle Academy
Practice Activities and a few Solutions
Objectives
 Give examples of jobs, salaries, and opportunities that are possible by participating in the
Academy
 Explain how your participation in the Academy can help you take advantage of these
opportunities

Try It / Solve It

1. This activity aims to develop your skills for locating, evaluating, and interpreting IT
career information. Use Internet resources provided by your teacher to identify a
specific job that interests you in the IT career field. Then, answer the following:

a. What are the typical tasks involved in this job?

b. What kind of social, problem-solving or technical skills are required?
c. What are the physical demands of the job?
d. What kind of training/education is required for the job?
e. Where are current job openings?
f. How many different kinds of businesses use these job skills?
g. What is the salary range?
h. What other entry-level jobs are within this career field?
Solution:
Using Internet resources, ask students to identify a job in the IT career field that
interests them and answer the questions about that career. You can use the
resources provided below, or find more with your preferred Internet search engine
using the keywords: "jobs + asia sites", "jobs + europe sites"

Jobs in the United States

• US Department of Labor Career Guide to Industries: Excellent resource for
all types of job working conditions, occupations, predicted growth/decline
• Portal to a list of IT companies: Many of the sites have a "career" link that
provides information about the types of jobs each offers
CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 1
 • Alphabetical list of jobs such as "database developer" with specific
company job descriptions
• Job seekers and employers
• http://www.google.com - keyword "Information Technology careers"

Jobs in Eastern Europe, Belarus, Romania, Russia, Czech Republic, and Hungary
• Lists of job search sites
• http://www.ngonet.org/jobs
• http://www.job-hunt.org/europ.shtml
• http://www.monster.co.uk/

Jobs in Asia – Pacific

• http://www.escapeartist.com/as/pac.htm

2. Describe how taking one of the Academy courses and earning a certification exam could
help prepare you for a job in that career field.

Solution: Answers will vary.

Database Design
1-2: Data vs. Information
Practice Activities and a few Solutions
Vocabulary
Directions: Identify the vocabulary word for each definition below.

Database A collection of data arranged for ease and speed of search and
retrieval.
Data Raw material, from which you can draw conclusions
Information Knowledge, intelligence, a particular piece of data with a special
meaning or function

Try It / Solve It
1. List specific data that the school collects about each student. What information
could be gathered using all the student data?

Possible responses for data include: name, address, phone number, names of parents
or guardian, age, sex, nationality, parking place, discipline history, academic
history or at- attendance history, grades, test scores, ethnic background.

Possible responses for information include: The ethnic groups represented in

the school, what percentage of students drive a car to school, how many students
have grade- point averages greater than 3.0 (information), performance of
different ethnic groups on standardized tests, diversity of the school population,
CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 2
 2. Review an online database such as:

http://www.archives.gov
http://www.historyworld.net/
http://newdeal.feri.org/index.ht
m https://www.loc.gov/
http://www.imdb.com/

a) Write examples of data and information related to one of the sites..

b) State why you believe data collections of this type could be important.

Possible answers: to keep a historical record of immigration into a country, laws

passed, etc.

3. Choose a website that displays data that might be stored in a database; find 10 data
items on the site and list 5 pieces of information that could be gleaned from the data.

Solution: Have students share their data in a game with the students competing to see
who has the most unique data and information. One student reads his/her list of data
aloud. If someone else in class has that piece of data or information, no one gets a point
for it. If only that student has the data/info on his/her list, that student gets a point. Go
through all data/info items and have students report their points. Reward the highest
score!

4. Give examples of how data becomes information for these two industries:
film/movie, hospital/healthcare.

Some answers may include:

Film data: cast, directors, producers, awards, box office figures
Information: type of movies that win the most awards, actors who consistently appear
in the top-grossing movies, studios that produce the most profitable movies
Hospital data: patient names, diagnosis, medication, tests, etc.

CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 3

 5. Using this Lunch Room Data Report, answer the questions that follow.

Date Student Faculty/Staff Hamburger/Taco Pizza Soup/Salad

Sales Sales Bar Bar Bar
12/02/2003 497 23 335 122 63
12/03/2003 440 19 285 126 48
12/04/2003 447 30 301 126 50
12/05/2003 442 27 325 107 37
12/06/2003 330 12 229 83 30

What does this report mean?

______________________________________________________
What data was collected?
______________________________________________________
What information does this table provide?
The table gives us information about which items are the most popular.

How do you think this information is used by those reading the report?
______________________________________________________
Generate at least two conclusions based on the data provided.
______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________
Generate at least two questions that you would ask about the data provided.
SOLUTION: Do students and teachers prefer the same food? How do the total
counts for students and teachers break down in terms of type of food purchased?

Database Design
1-3: History of the Database
Practice Activities and a few Solutions

Vocabulary
Directions: Identify the vocabulary word for each definition below.

Table instance A relational database chart that is used to map the infor-
chart mation from the entity relationship diagram
Primary key (PK) the unique identifier for each row of data
Foreign key (FK) Links data in one table to the data in a second table by re-
ferring to the PK column in the second table
CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 4
 Nulls Indicates if a column must contain a value
Unique Indicates if the value in the column is unique within the ta-
ble
Datatype Refers to the format and definition of the data in each col-
umn

Try It / Solve It
1. Complete the diagram by listing the important events in the evolution of the database.
Draw a line from each event to the era in which it falls. Refer to question 5 answer

2. True or False: The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) was an important historical
contribution in database development and design ___________

3. Name two important historical contributions in database development and design.

Answers will vary

4. If Building the database is the third major task in the database development
process, then what are the first two major tasks?
________________________________________
________________________________________

5. (Optional) List at least three timeline events in the evolution of the database.

1960s: Computers become cost effective for private companies along with increased stor-
age capability.
1970-72: E.F. Codd proposes the relational model for databases, disconnecting the logical
organization from the physical storage.
1976: P. Chen proposes the entity relationship model (ERM) for database design.
Early 1980s: The first commercially-available relational database systems start to appear
at the beginning of the 1980s with Oracle Version 2.
Mid-1980s: SQL (structured query language) becomes "intergalactic standard."
Early 1990s: An industry shakeout begins with fewer surviving companies. Oracle sur-
vives.
Mid-1990s: Kaboom! The usable Internet/World Wide Web (WWW) appears. A mad
scramble ensues to allow remote access to computer systems with legacy data.
CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 5
 Late 1990s: The large investment in Internet companies helps create a tools market boom
for Web/Internet/DB connectors.
Early 21st century: Solid growth of DB applications continues. Examples: commercial
websites (yahoo.com, amazon.com, google.com), government systems (Bureau of Citi-
zenship and Immigration Services, Bureau of the Census), art museums, hospitals,
schools, etc.

6. (Optional) To most of us, the Internet has become an essential element in the way we
communicate, the way we do business, and the way we learn. Surprisingly, few people
really know the names of the people and the events that have contributed to its
phenomenal growth.

In this activity, you and your classmates will construct a wall mural timeline of the major
historical events in Internet history. Using Internet resources, your group will be assigned
one topic from the research list. Your group's task is to gather information to add to the
classroom timeline:

Find four events that describe your topic. Each event must have a person, place, and/or
thing associated with it. Add your group's information to the timeline.

Research List:
• Historical thinkers: people without whose inventions computers and communication
as we know it today could not be possible
• Enablers: universities, government agencies, and businesses that contributed to the
idea of the Internet and birth of the Internet
• Communicators: people who developed computer languages, computer networks,
and the technology for one computer to communicate with another
• Innovators: people and businesses that enabled the average person to be able to
use a computer and communicate on the Internet
• Movers and shakers: people and companies that transformed the Internet into a
virtual mall of information and services

Solution:
In this lesson, students will use the Internet to research the people and businesses that
contributed to the development of the Internet. Internet search keywords: "internet time-
line" or "Hobbe's Internet Timeline."

Using adding-machine-tape paper or poster paper cut into strips, create a 10-foot mural
for the classroom. Divide the paper into a timeline as follows: allow about 1/4 of the length
for 1800 to 1970 and the remaining 3/4 for 1970 to present.

Assign topics to groups. Each group should find at least four events that illustrate its topic.

Each group must identify a person, a place, and a thing associated with its topic.

The topics to assign are:

• Historical thinkers: people without whose inventions computers and communica-

tion as we know it today could not be possible (Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham

CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 6

 Bell, Vannevar Bush)
• Enablers: universities, government agencies, and businesses that contributed to
the idea of the Internet and birth of the Internet (ARPANET, NSF, CERN, Rand
Corp.)
• Communicators: people who developed computer languages, computer networks,
and the technology for one computer to communicate with another (Ray Tomlin-
son, Bob Metcalf, Vinton Cerf, Larry Wall)
• Innovators: people and businesses that enabled the average person to be able to
use a computer and communicate on the Internet (Microsoft, Apple, AOL,
Netscape, Yahoo, Google)
• Movers and shakers: people and companies that transformed the Internet into a
virtual mall of information and services (Oracle, Amazon.com, EBay, MSN)

Database Design
1-4: Major Transformations in Computing
Practice Activities and a few Solutions

Vocabulary

Directions: Identify the vocabulary word for each definition below.

Infrastructure The basic framework or features of a system

Grid computing A global effort to develop an environment in which
individual users can access computers, databases, and
experimental facilities simply and transparently, without
having to consider where those facilities are located
Software The programs, routines, and symbolic languages that
control the functioning of the hardware and direct its
operation.
Hardware A computer and the associated physical equipment directly
involved in the performance of data-processing or
communications functions.
Operating System Software designed to control the hardware of a specific
data-processing system in order to allow users and
application programs to make use of it.
Application A software program which carries out specific tasks on
behalf of computer users
Client A workstation or desktop computer including a screen,
keyboard, and mouse; communicates directly with the user
Server A more powerful computer which accepts work requests
from clients, does the work, and sends results back to the
client

CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 7

Try It / Solve It

1. Provide a definition and an example of each of these:

a) Hardware: the physical components of a computer. Mouse, keyboard, screen,

memory, stick drive are some examples
b) Operating system: a software program which directly controls and manages the
hardware. Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Linux are examples
c) Software: programs (sets of instructions) which tell the hardware what to do.
Microsoft Word, Palm Desktop, Mozilla & Chrome Browsers are examples

2. How has the major transformation of cell phones impacted day-to-day activities of a service
repair company – what can the service repair person do today that they could not do before
this transformation?

Answers will vary. Students should be able to point out that cell phones now enable a
service repair person to call before arriving, call to inform the customer if they are going to
be late, call to order parts before returning to the depot, etc.

3. List three e-businesses that use database software and describe how the database software
is being used.

Answers will vary. Check for students understanding that database software, for any
business, can store and display information stored in the database.

4. Write down the steps of a simple credit-card transaction. How many places does the
information go, and what happens if the transaction is not complete at any one of the steps?
What role does a database play in this process?

Note: The students may not have all these steps. That is all right as long as they have a
general idea of how a database plays a big role in the process.

Solution: Steps in a simple credit-card transaction:

a) Customer presents credit card.
b) Store runs credit card through the system to get customer information: card number,
name.
c) Store takes the customer information and creates an entry for the purchase, using
information from its database (item number, price, discount, etc.).
d) Store information, details, and amount of purchase are sent to the credit card
company for approval.
e) Credit card company uses customer information from its own database to check
credit limit, run identity-theft checks, etc.
f) Both databases (store and credit-card company) are updated.
g) If at any time the transaction is not completed (customer changes mind and stops
transaction, or transaction puts customer over the credit limit), the purchase
information is not entered in either database.

CIS 9002 – Spring 2018 Page: 8