Fathom Overview

Workshop on using Fathom in School Improvement Planning (SIP)

What is it?

Fathom is a software program that you can use to explore your SIP data– Produces tables, graphs, statistics,...– Exposes relationships that exist within the

data

How is it used?

You can import data into Fathom from Excel and other programs

“Drag and drop” icons onto the page to easily create graphs and tables

How is it used?...

Allows you to explore data relationships– look at the same data in different ways– “highlight” data of interest in many graphs

at once

The Fathom Document

Dynamic Statistics

Fathom documents contain objects that represent various ways of looking at data.

The objects in the document are dynamically linked to one another.– If one object changes, the others are

automatically updated This makes Fathom an ideal environment

for exploring data.

Fathom Documents

Fathom documentscontain text, data, tables, graphs, andother objects thatdisplay and analyzedata.

Fathom documentsare created byadding objectsto the Fathom Window.

The Fathom Window

the Menu bar

the Shelf

the Fathom document

The Menu Bar and Shelf

The Menu bar provides access to actions that you may wish to carry out.

The Shelf provides access to objects that you may wish to add to your Fathom document.

the Menu bar

the Shelf

Importing Data

Adding a Data Collection

To add a Collection to your Fathom document, drag a Collection off the Shelf

The Collection is currently empty

Using Spreadsheet Data

To copy data from a spreadsheet

1. Open the spreadsheet.

2. Select all cells that contain data and column headings (CNTRL-A).

3. Copy (CNTRL-C) the cells.

Using Spreadsheet Data

Go to your Fathom document

Select the empty Collection in your document

Paste (EditPaste Cases or CTRL-V) the data into the collection

Cases in Fathom

The individual “rows” of data in the spreadsheet are now “cases” in Fathom.

After pasting in data or importing, the Collection is now populated.

Empty Collection Populated Collection

Data Import

Viewing Data

Inspecting Collections

Double clicking on a Collection launches the Inspector

The Inspector allows you to view and edit the data and add new attributes

Double click to inspect

Attributes and Values

Attributes represent what types of data are shown in each case.– Each case has a value for each attribute– Generated data may have a formula.

attributes values

case number

Inspecting Cases

Dragging open a Collection will show each case as an individual icon.

Double click on a case to inspect it.

Drag corner to see full collection

Double click to inspect

Adding Tables

You can view your data like in a spreadsheet by using a Table object

1. Select the Collection

2. Drag a Table object off the Shelf and onto the document

Table

Using Tables

case

click to addnew attribute Use Tables

to view, edit,or createnew casesand attributes

Tables provide a“spreadsheet”style view of the data

collectionname

casenumbers

attributes

Entering Data

Using the Inspector

You can add data to a Collection using the Inspector

Double click on the Collection to open an Inspector

Clicking on <new> lets you create new data attributes

Adding New Cases

To add new cases you can either: 1. Select the Collection, and choose the

menu item DataNew Cases

2. Right click on the Inspector and choose New Cases from the context menu

edit values

navigate cases

Editing in the Inspector

You can add new values for cases by typing them into the Inspector

Use the arrow buttons at the bottom of the Inspector to move between cases

Using Tables

Cases can also be added and edited using a Table

Select the Collection and drag a Table off the Shelf

Click on the cells to edit the values

Click on <new> to add new attributes

Graphing Data

Creating an Empty Graph

To create a newGraph, simply drag a Graph object off theshelf and dropit into the document

Adding Data with Inspectors

Open an inspector on the Collection

Drag the attributes that you want to graph onto the axis

If only one attribute is dragged “count” is placed automatically onto the other axis

Adding Data with Tables

Create a Table for the Collection Drag the columns that you want to

graph onto the axis

Changing the Graph Type

When one attribute is plotted, the default graph is a “dot plot”

The graph type can be changed by clicking in the top right corner

Exploring Data

Different Views of Data

Objects in Fathom are dynamically linked

Selecting a Case in one object will highlight it in all other related objects

Selecting data

A selected group in one graph will be highlighted in all graphs

Click onone barto see thesame groupin other graphs

Summarizing Data

Summary tables give a a good overview of key statistics (mean, standard deviation, etc.)– Drag a summary table off

the shelf– Drag attributes onto

the arrows to be displayed either as rows or columns