Learning Lists and Dictionaries by Building Web Dashboards with Live Data

This Nifty Assignment tasks students with creating an interactive, web-based data visualization dashboard connected to a live data source. The assignment is targeted for late-CS1/early-CS2 after students have experience with loops and know how to access individual items in lists and dictionaries. Students are walked through the use of Python libraries for making HTTP data request, creating visualizations, and integrating them into a web framework with user interface components. The challenge of the assignment comes in working with the received data, containing nested lists and dictionaries. Students learn to explore the data, selecting needed fields as well as iterating through and filtering. Overall, there are several benefits of utilizing these tools: • students get experience working with real-world, non-trivial examples of nested lists and dictionaries • the application students develop is visually appealing, fun to use, and can be deployed and shared • students get a taste of how to build professional-quality web applications • the data visualization aspect provides early exposure to data science work for students who might be interested in that area • the assignment serves as the springboard for many creative projects through substitution of different data sources and visualization types An example of an end-result of the assignment be seen in Figure 1. Assignment materials can be found at The assignment is presented in three parts, covering the three components of the application, and instructors could choose to use one, two, or all three parts.