SimpleRGraphs

The goal of SimpleRGraphs is to learn base R functions that will help visualize data in a step-wise, interactive tutorial.

BIOL 5800/6800 Students

Once complete, this assignment should address the following learning objectives:

• Learn to create different graphs using basic R functions
  • Line Graphs
  • Bar Graphs
  • Pie Graphs
  • Histograms
  • Dot Graphs
• Learn to manipulate and customize graphs created with base R
• Apply rendering methods from video lectures to create a PDF of graphs

Submission

For lab assignment #8, use pickygrasshoppers hormonaltrees or lotuscountry to create graphs similar to those produced in this tutorial. Choose an appropriate subset of the data for the type of graph you are making. Use this week’s lecture videos to render a PDF of plots from ONE dataset.

Submit:

• Your figure PDF
• The R(Script|Notebook|Markdown) used to produce the figures
• A text file, LAST_NAME_Reflection8.txt, including your response to the following reflection question on Canvas:

You know how important it is to use the correct type of graphic to accurately represent your data, but pie graphics typically have a poor reputation in the scientific community for most data. Why do you think that is? When do you think pie graphics can be useful?

Installation

Linking your Github and Rstudio

This tutorial was built in and works within Rstudio but it also works in web browsers. The packages developed for this tutorial are hosted on Github, so you will need to make sure that your Rstudio and Github are linked for a smooth installation. If you do not have Github and Rstudio configured to work together, please visit this gist to get setup!

Programs to download outside of Rstudio

Mac Users will need Xcode developer tools from the App store in order to use devtools
Windows Users will need Rtools from CRAN in order to use devtools

Now install the tutorial!

If you do not have learnr & devtools installed already, use the commented(#) lines in the code chunks below before running library()

First: You will need learnr to run this tutorial (or create your own - learnr documentation):

# Run the install line ONCE
install.packages("learnr")

library(learnr)

Second: Install the development version of the tutorial from GitHub with devtools:

# Run the install line ONCE
install.packages("devtools")

library(devtools)
devtools::install_github("adc0032/SimpleRGraphs")

Third: This tutorial package has an accompanying data package that can be accessed from GitHub with:

devtools::install_github("adc0032/WILD7150")

The package also requires tidyverse, but you should be prompted to install if you do not have it installed already.

Running

To start the tutorial in a web browser (pref. Google Chrome), run the following command in your console:

learnr::run_tutorial("simplergraphs", package = "SimpleRGraphs")

Additionally, you should now have a “Tutorial” tab, where you can access “Simple Graphs in R” by clicking Start Tutorial This will start the tutorial in an Rstudio window