Introducing Normal Forms to Students: A Comparison of Theory-First vs. Project-First Educational Approaches

One of the primary challenges instructors face when educating scientists and engineers is the introduction of important theory, both to show its essential nature in research as well as its practicality. This paper analyzes two pedagogical methods for the instruction of database normal forms. The first of these methods is a theory-based approach that relies on written works and practices to introduce the concept. The second of these focuses on a project-based approach which aligns with normal form standards as students implement a database schema. This paper compares these in a small study and advises an appropriate method for educators

Deduction of a Functional Dependency from a Set of Functional Dependencies

This paper describes an algorithm called the Deduction Tracing Algorithm (DTA) which utilizes basic properties of functional dependencies from database systems and a modification of a tree search algorithm from artificial intelligence. The algorithm takes a set of functional dependencies, F, along with a specific functional dependency L → R as input and produces a list of functional dependencies from F that can be used to deduce L → R. The resulting algorithm is easily automated to provide relational database users with a tool for organizing their queries