Data Modeling

Information Literacy Reminders:
These assignments are open-ended by design and are meant to simulate the type of instructions you would get in a work environment. The goal is to get you comfortable working with datasets and interpreting information. In addition, these activities build the “critical thinking muscle” by requiring you to consider the information resource more critically than you may have previously done. When you are performing your analysis in any given assignment, remember to place context all data and link it to the relevant course concepts. Your conclusions in any given assignment should be supported by your observations/analysis and demonstrate your comprehensive understanding of the topic(s). These assignments are submitted via D2L.
Instructions:
This assignment tests your analytical ability and ability to interpret a situation, and then create a data model for it. Databases are central to the management of information in business firms. Knowing something about how databases work will also help you better understand the nature of information and what it means to “manage” it.
Data modelling is a procedure for discovering the structure of the data involved in a business domain, and it’s an indispensable first step in designing useful and effective databases. You will design a data model from the business case given below. Your work on the data modelling assignment will be assessed based on how well your data model explains the relationships within the business case.
When you upload your assignment to the D2L Assignments folder, you are stating that the work is your own. All assignments will be evaluated through TurnItIn, so any metadata that is not your own will flag an Academic Integrity Review. Also, you may hand draw your data model but it must be legible and clear.
Business Case:
A few months after the 2017 volcanic eruptions at Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii had ceased, state monument officials at the mountain began a program of crater tours, led by academic geologists. The monument officials would like to have a database to keep better track of information associated with these tours. Relevant facts follow.
For each geologist, the database should keep track of the geologist’s name, highest degree held, and current university affiliation. A geologist who participates in the program usually will stay at the volcanic park for a few weeks, and will therefore typically lead many tours during his/her stay. Each tour, however, is led by just one geologist. For each tour, officials want to record the geologist who leads the tour, the date and time-of-day the tour takes place, and also a description of the route the tour takes through the crater. (There are no “standard” routes, and the geologist is free to choose where to go on any given tour.) More than one tour may take place in any given day, and it’s even conceivable that two tours might leave at the same time. The database must also keep track of the tourists who sign up for these tours. In this case, we only need to record the person who actually does the signing-up; for example, where a father signs up a family of five for a tour, the database will only have a record for the father. For each tourist (defined in this way), the database should keep track of the tourist’s name, home state, and the number of people in his/her party. Obviously, the database must also identify which tour the tourist is signing up for. A tour can (and usually does) accommodate more than one tourist and his/her party. Also, there is no restriction on how many times a given tourist can sign up to tour the crater. At the end of each tour, each tourist (again, this is the person of record in the database) is given the opportunity to submit a card giving comments on his/her experience on the tour. Volcanic park officials would like the database to have a field for recording those comments.
Your Deliverable:
• Complete the data model below to represent this business situation. Assume all relevant entities are included already. Add relevant attributes and unique identifiers. Show the relationships between the entities, using the standard notation we have adopted for our course. Also, include foreign keys in your model. Where an attribute that is part of a composite primary key also functions as a foreign key, be sure to indicate that fact in your model.