ICS 321 Database Systems I

Syllabus—Fall 2025

CRN 70548

Dr. Richard Halverson

CLASS:

When	Online asynchronous.
Recordings	YouTube Playlist: ICS321 Fall 2025 Halverson

CONTACT:

Professor	Dr. Richard Halverson
Office	https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/8083717424
Office Hours	On Zoom by appointment by email or text
Email	richardh@hawaii.edu
Text	808-371-7424

TEXTBOOK:

1. Sign in or create an account at learn.zybooks.com

2. Enter zyBook code: HAWAIIICS321HalversonFall2025

3. Subscribe. Cost is $89.

Textbook URL: https://learn.zybooks.com/zybook/HAWAIIICS321HalversonFall2025

The textbook is tailored for this class. You must complete all the assigned participation activities, challenge activities and zyLab lab assignments. Make sure you use your @hawaii.edu email address.

COURSE PREREQUISITES

ICS 314 and either ICS 311 or EE 367, or consent of instructor or Department Chairperson.

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION

Introduction to relational database systems, data modeling, query processing, transaction processing, storage, and indexing.

SCHEDULE:

Video lectures will be posted in the YouTube playlist for this semester and videos from previous semesters are

Week	*Reading ( - required)**	*Assessment ( - required)**
- 1 - Mon 8/25 Fri 8/29	Ch 1 Introduction to Databases (Sections 1.1 - 1.6) Participation Activities* (62 pts)	Ch 1 Challenge Activities* (4 pts)(Due 8/31)
- 2 - Tue 9/2 Fri 9/5	Ch 2 Relational Databases - Create (Sections 2.1 - 2.5) Participation Activities* (70 pts)	Ch 2 Challenge Activities* (5 pts) Ch 2 Lab Activity 2.6, 2.7 (20 pts) (Due 9/7) Server Assignment 1: Schemas (Due 9/21)
- 3 - Mon 9/8 Fri 9/12	Ch 3 Relational Databases - Select, Insert, Update (Sections 3.1 - 3.3) Participation Activities* (54 pts)	Ch 3 Challenge Activities* (13 pts) Ch 3 Lab Activity 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 (40 pts) (Due 9/14)
- 4 - Mon 9/15 Fri 9/19	Ch 4 Relational Databases - Keys and Constraints (Sections 4.1 - 4.4) Participation Activities* (68 pts)	Ch 4 Challenge Activities* (16 pts) Ch 4 Lab Activity 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 (30 pts) (Due 9/21)
- 5 - Mon 9/22 Fri 9/26	Ch 5 Normal Forms (Sections 5.1 - 5.3) Participation Activities* (53 pts)	Ch 5 Challenge Activities* (3 pts) Ch 5 Lab Activity 5.4, 5.5 (20 pts) (Due 9/28) Server Assignment 2: Normal Forms (Due 10/12)
- 6 - Mon 9/29 Fri 10/3	Ch 6 SQL Aggregate Functions (Sections 6.1 - 6.3) Participation Activities* (37 pts)	Ch 6 Challenge Activities* (12 pts) Ch 6 Lab Activity 6.4, 6.5 (20 pts) (Due 10/5)
- 7 - Mon 10/6 Fri 10/10	Ch 7 SQL JOINs (Sections 7.1 - 7.2) Participation Activities* (20 pts)	Ch 7 Challenge Activities* (4 pts) Ch 7 Lab Activity 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7 (50 pts) (Due 10/12)
- 8 - Mon 10/13 Fri 10/17	Ch 8 SQL Subqueries (Sections 8.1 - 8.4) Participation Activities* (88 pts)	Ch 8 Challenge Activities* (16 pts) Ch 8 Lab Activity 8.5 (10 pts) (Due 10/19)
- 9 - Mon 10/20 Fri 10/24	Ch 9 Database Programming (Sections 9.1 - 9.2) Participation Activities* (45 pts)	Ch 9 Challenge Activities* (2 pts)(Due 10/26) Server Assignment 3: Triggers and Stored Procedures (Due 11/9)
- 10 - Mon 10/27 Fri 10/31	Ch 10 Transaction Management (Sections 10.1 - 10.5) Participation Activities* (81 pts)	Ch 10 Challenge Activities* (13 pts) Ch 10 Lab Activity 10.6 (10 pts) (Due 11/2)
- 11 - Mon 11/3 Fri 11/7	Ch 11 Data Storage and Indexes (Sections 11.1 - 11.7) Participation Activities* (112 pts)	Ch 11 Challenge Activities* (25 pts) Ch 11 Lab Activity 11.8 (10 pts) (Due 11/9)
- 12 - Mon 11/10 Fri 11/14	Ch 12 PHP and HTML Forms (Sections 12.1 - 12.20) Participation Activities* (142 pts)	Ch 12 Challenge Activities* (7 pts) Ch 12 Lab Activity 12.21 (10 pts) (Due 11/16) Server Assignment 4: Web APIs (3 parts) (Due 12/7)
- 13 - Mon 11/17 Fri 11/21	Ch 13 ER Models (Sections 13.1 - 13.6) Participation Activities* (92 pts)	Ch 13 Challenge Activities* (11 pts)(Due 11/23)
- 14 - Mon 11/24 Fri 12/5	Ch 14 Database Design (Sections 14.1 - 14.5) Participation Activities* (58 pts)	Ch 14 Challenge Activities* (10 pts) Ch 14 Lab Activity 14.1, 14.11 (20 pts) (Due 12/7)
- 15 - Mon 12/8 Fri 12/12	Ch 15 ER Model Case Study (Sections 15.1 - 15.6) Participation Activities* (13 pts)	Ch 15 Lab Activity 15.7 (10 pts) (Due 12/14)

available in the Resources folder.

GRADING POLICY:
See the Grades tab in Lamaku for the percentage breakdown of each score within each category. All assignments are submitted electronically and auto graded.

*Type*	*Points*	%	*Description*
Participation Activities	995	10	Click through animations in zyBooks with multiple choice questions throughout each section reinforcing the concepts. Unlimited submissions.
Challenge Activities	141	20	Short fill-in-the-blank quizzes in zyBooks demonstrating your understanding of the material covered in that section. Unlimited submissions.
Lab Activities	200	40	Coding assignments at the end of most chapters in zyBooks. Unlimited submissions.
Server Assignments	100	30	Assignments to be completed on your assigned server. You will be provided with a MySQL server in the cloud that I access for grading. Grading will be automatic on all parts of the assignments.

All auto-graded assessments must be completed by Saturday after the last day of finals.

Letter grades will be based on a rounded percentage and assigned as follows:

A	B	C	D
A+ >= 100	B+ >= 87	C+ >= 77	D+ >= 67
A >= 95	B >= 83	C >= 73	D >= 63
A– >= 90	B– >= 80	C– >= 70	D– >= 60

COURSE OUTCOMES

ICS 321 Database Systems introduces relational database systems, data modeling, query processing, transaction processing, storage, and indexing. At the end of this class, the successful student will:

Understand what a database system is

You understand what a DBMS is and what it provides
You understand how DBMS provides data independence and protects the data from the user.
You understand security, concurrency, integrity, and recovery controls.
You can compare database systems with programming systems.

Understand the relational model of data

You understand what the relational model is
You can conceptualize data using the relational model.
You understand what basic relational algebra operators under set semantics.
You understand matching, not matching, extend operations and image relations.
You can express queries using relational algebra.
You can create tables using SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)
You understand integrity constraints
You can specify primary key and foreign key constraints in CREATE TABLE statements

Be proficient in SQL

You can write SQL queries with restrictions, projections and joins.
You can compose SQL queries using set operators.
You can write SQL queries with correlated subqueries.
You can write SQL aggregation queries involving GROUP BY and HAVING clauses.
You can write SQL queries implementing set union, intersection and difference operations.
You can write SQL queries implementing matching and image relations.
You can translate a query in English to SQL.

Be able to write a program that interacts with a DBMS server

You understand client-server computing in the context of DBMSs
You understand how a host programming language environment interacts with the SQL environment
You can implement simple APIs that interact with a DBMS server.

Structure Data using Data Models

You can use data modeling tools like Entity-Relationship Diagrams.
You can translate data models into relational table schema (DDLs)

Understand Data Normalization

You understand functional dependencies and their relationship to keys
You understand multi-valued dependencies and join dependencies.
You understand normal forms 1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF, 4NF and 5NF.
You can find keys given a set of functional dependencies
You can identify tables that are not normalized
You can decompose unnormalized tables.

Understand constraints, views, triggers, stored procedures, and indexes in Databases

You understand what constraints are for and how to use them.
You understand what views are for and how to use them.
You understand what triggers are for and how to use them.
You understand what stored procedures are for and how to use them.
You understand what indexes are for and how to use them.

Understand basic transaction processing concepts

You understand transactions and their properties of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability (ACID)
You understand the anomalies that occur without ACID.
You can implement stored procedures that use transactions to ensure ACID.

Understand how data is stored and indexed in a DBMS

You understand storage media and their basic properties
You understand how data is stored using storage media in a DBMS
You understand how different indexing techniques work

In addition to the ICS department’s undergraduate course outcomes, which are students will have:

An ability to apply mathematical foundations, algorithmic principles, and computer science theory to the modeling and design of computer-based systems.
An ability to define the computing requirements of a problem and to design appropriate solutions based on established design principles and with an understanding of the tradeoffs involved in design choices.
An ability to use sound development principles to implement computer-based and software systems of varying complexity, and to evaluate such systems.
An ability to use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice.