Activity aim: Learn normalization techniques by having students set up cases that need normalizing, and their peers resolving the normalization errors.

Materials: Blackboard Discussion Board discussion.

Time estimated: 30 minutes

Prep for teacher: Set up Discussion Board discussion. Prepare the assignment, and set up the discussion and options.

Note: Designed for a class of >40 students. Students need to know how to use Discussion Board, open a thread, and post a reply, and view Discussion Tree View. Students do not resolve their own cases. They will correct cases posted by others, and should not reply to the same student, but Rotate among authors. They should use “Reply” to reply to their threads, but only if they do not have any replies yet.

Assessment: Each thread is worth 1 point. Each correct resolution is worth 1 point. Incorrect resolution are worth 0.5 points. Maximum for the exercise is 6 points.

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Activity Description:
Students practice how to resolve cases of Violations of 1NF, 2NF,3NF. Each student (as author) will provide 3 examples : violation of 1NF, violation of 2NF, violation of 3NF.  Authors create 3 threads, such as in “1NF Violation”, or “2NF Violation”, or “3NF Violation.” Each student (as responder) must correct one of each case – 1NF Violation, 2NF Violation, 3NF Violation. Each student’s reply should contain the steps to correct the violation, and the corrected relation.

A more detailed description of the activity is posted here.

This activity was developed by Paulina Vizgan as part of the Baruch College Center for Teaching and Learning Summer Seminar on Active Learning.

Image Credit: JD Hancock, Flickr Creative Commons