Comprehensive Data Management System For The PB & J Fund

In recent years, interest in health and nutrition has become widespread throughout the United States. However, the formal science of nutrition was not introduced until the early 1900s with the emergence of Home Economics. Over the years, the two fields split: nutrition became more prevalent while Home Economics became characterized by general disinterest. Both parts of my thesis project relate to the prevalence of the study of nutrition in the United States today. For my technical work, my team and I will design and implement a comprehensive data management system for the PB&J Fund, which is a non-profit organization focused on educating students and parents in all aspects of healthy eating and nutrition. For my STS topic, I will research the

At the very least, organizations must maintain information about employees, and many organizations rely on further data to manage customers, products, and services. One solution for the necessity of the management of data is a relational database management system. DuBois (2013) explains that in the past, the fees charged for software and support as well as the expense of the hardware necessary to store the data made this solution financially unfeasible for most organizations. However, as computer technology evolved, computing power became not only more powerful but also cheaper and more accessible. Open source communities contributed to this, developing powerful operating systems as well as database software such as MySQL, which includes a SQL (Structured Query Language) server, client programs for accessing the server, administrative tools, and a programming interface for writing programs (DuBois,

Using CakePHP, a web framework with a database access layer, we will design and create a system to manage the classes, students, instructors, volunteers, and other data that make up the PB&J Fund organization. Our current data schema can be seen in Figure 1.

By using CakePHP in addition to the MySQL database, my team and I can also implement an intuitive user interface for interaction with the stored data. Using data management software instead of an assortment of different, incompatible applications will foster the creation of more interactive and related data that can be easily analyzed. The extra functionalities my team and I will focus on are generating class rosters, tracking class attendance, creating class surveys, storing student and parent information more securely, and generating charts and graphs in order to visualize the accumulated