This is crazy: it starts at about 20 micrometers across... that's 1/500 of a centimeter. I think it's zooming in on the eye of a mite.
Anyway, the data I have been collecting on myself is health-related. Since Poppy was born, I have been trying to keep better care of my body. I want to make sure I am eating right and exercising enough. High cholesterol and related health problems, like strokes and heart attacks, run in my family, and I don't want that to happen for a while.
I wasn't approaching health logically: I didn't like to hear that some things I was doing weren't healthy. I ignored advice from my doctor, and told myself I was exercising a lot and eating right. But I didn't really know that, because I didn't have any information. Just a vague picture of what "eating healthy" is, and sort of thinking about what I ate. Once I stopped being defensive, I realized that it was time for data collection.
Here is a spreadsheet of the last few months: Health Data.
Here is a graph of some of the major parts of that spreadsheet:
Notice the dips in the green line? What does the green line represent? What are those sharp downward spikes? What should I do to fix that to make my Feltron better? (Here is how I made that graph).
So, the doctor told me that even though I need to keep my cholesterol down, one does not do that by eating less cholesterol; apparently it's complicated, but eating less sugar/carbohydrates helps. Did I do a good job of that? (Here is a video on how to make the following type of chart):
Hmm... Well, my sugar intake didn't go down. Maybe it was always good? How would I know that? Oh wait, the internet exists! Whew! For things like that, look up a government number. It says carbohydrates are the primary energy source for the brain, so that's important. It also says that I should have 130g each day.
Hmmm... Seems I could cut carbs further. The majority of days I am still eating too many. Here is how I made this chart.
I made a few more charts, you can see them on the spreadsheet.
For Classwork
I want you to make at least five charts out of your spreadsheet data (that is, your Feltron data). Then I want you to publish the sheet to the web, it looks like this. Here is a how to video.Post the link you get in the comments of this blog page. Then we will talk about what worked and what didn't.
For Homework
I would like you to make a Google Doc that has your color scheme and font choices. Look at fonts here (check out Amatic SC. It is the hippest font - once you look for it, it is everywhere. Playfair Display and Lato are currently my favorites). I posted a link to some color pallet choosers, or you can just play around. Pick 2-3 colors, or 4 at most. I think the way to go is pick two colors and just use shades of them.
Extra
You may want to consider using another tool to make the charts for your final draft. Here are some links:
amcharts (website)
Tableau Public (windows or mac app. Really powerful, but a bit hard to figure out at first. But once you do, it's amazing)
Iconic History makes one really funny chart if you use Chrome
If you use a Mac, Numbers is like super-Google-Sheets. Much prettier charts.
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