Using the Data Modeling Worksheet to Improve Novice Data Modeler Performance

This research reports on use and evaluation of the data modeling worksheet as a pedagogical tool for improving a student\u27s ability to learn the extended entity-relationship data modeling methodology. A laboratory experiment using a modified posttest only, control group design compared the performance of two student subject groups. One group used the data modeling worksheet as an integral component of their instruction on database design. A second control group did not use the worksheet, but that group received comparable training in every other respect. Subjects were tasked to develop a data model that represented a textual description of a data modeling problem. The data analysis used a one-way ANOVA to evaluate eight hypotheses, each representing a facet of the data modeling methodology. The results indicate that the data modeling worksheet significantly improved student learning with regard to their ability to identify entities, entity identifier attributes, and ternary relationships

Compiling ER Specifications into Declarative Programs

This paper proposes an environment to support high-level database programming in a declarative programming language. In order to ensure safe database updates, all access and update operations related to the database are generated from high-level descriptions in the entity- relationship (ER) model. We propose a representation of ER diagrams in the declarative language Curry so that they can be constructed by various tools and then translated into this representation. Furthermore, we have implemented a compiler from this representation into a Curry program that provides access and update operations based on a high-level API for database programming.Comment: Paper presented at the 17th Workshop on Logic-based Methods in Programming Environments (WLPE2007