Software to Analyze Data about the Life Cycle of a Species

Inspiration

This project was inspired by my love for data and nature. Ever since I was a young kid I loved analyzing data. It didn't matter what data it was, sports standings, weather, or population sizes, I loved looking through and analyzing the data. I also loved nature. Nearly every day I would go outside and bike, run, and read outside. When I was told that one of the possible tracks was life cycles, I immediately realized the perfect project.

What it does

This project takes data that you input about members of a certain animal species (any number of members of any species) and outputs an analysis of the data put into the system. More specifically, you would first input the number of members of the species you are inputting data for. Then you would input all of the birth years for the members, the years at which they reached maturity, and the years at which they died. It will then output the average age of the species, as well as the average time it takes for the species to reach maturity. It also outputs a graph showing the ages and time it takes for each species to reach maturity.

How we built it

This project was built with the programming language Python. I also used the tkinter and turtle modules to receive and output the data. The program itself utilizes a variety of classes for each stage of the data gathering and analyzing.

Challenges we ran into

I ran into challenges synchronizing the windows using tkinter. Since I had it so that data about any number of species could be inputted, it was a challenge ensuring that the appropriate number of windows to receive that data were put up and taken down at the correct times. For example, during testing I realized that the window that would be used to receive data about when each animal reached maturity would be opened on the window that was used to receive data about when each animal was born. Creating two separate classes solely for the data gathering itself instead of the gathering and storage solved this issue, however.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I gained a lot more experience with tkinter and the usages of classes. Utilizing classes has always been a weak spot of mine and in this Hackathon I gained experience using them in a variety of ways. I had also not used tkinter extensively before now, so it was a learning experience to format each window.

What we learned

I learned how I can open and close tkinter windows and also modify the attributes of each window with labels, buttons, and entry points.

What's next for Software to Analyze Data about the Life Cycle of a Species

Next would be to put this software in some sort of website or app. Currently, it is solely a Python file that you run. It would also be interesting to put in existing data about the life cycle of a variety of animals and have an option for putting in the name of a species of animal. That way, the data put into the software can be compared to historical data about that species.

Built With

• python
• tkinter
• turtle