After doing some initial work on the data, I told my editor what I had, and we decided to do a quick-hit just on this.

In Boot Camp, we learned that one should initially do some simple group by queries in Microsoft Access database manager to see what we had. I quickly encountered what, to this beginner, was a road block. There were a few thousand entries that were either partially blank or had a “0” in the amount column. These were acting as placeholders for future entries, but they were mixed in with all the projects already approved.

The amount column also had subtotals for each entity. That had the potential to throw off the math. And as I eventually found out, there were more than 500 entities listed, so it was not a simple matter of deleting a few rows.

Boot Camp was, as I said, overwhelming. I compare it to learning to ride a bike. On the last day, the instructors let go and, for the immediate future, my goal was just to stay upright.

I would compare cleaning data to popping a wheelie for a beginner. My guess is what I received was pretty clean by most CAR standards, but I didn’t know where to start. So I turned to Dowdell. I sent her the data, and she e-mailed back with suggestions.

Following her advice, I created a new column to hold the cleaned up entity data. Then, in that column, I wrote a formula using an IF statement that filled in the correct entity information. That way, I could easily sort the data and delete the unnecessary records.

I now had about the same number of records as the state said there were approved projects at that point.

It was now time for Access.

In Boot Camp, we started most exercises by asking what questions we wanted to answer. I had some pretty basic questions here:

• What entities received the most money?
• Who had the most projects approved?
• What were the most expensive projects?

I wanted lists for these rather than one number. I ran some other queries, too, and had some specific to Cedar Rapids, which was hit hardest by flooding.

These were all pretty basic queries, but they offered the most important and interesting answers. They also provided some answers I didn’t expect. For example, I found that 23 of the 30 most expensive projects were in Cedar Rapids.

Also, Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa together accounted for 79 percent of the $395 million approved statewide. This raised the question of whether other communities were being shorted. But by listing the entities by how much money they had received, I found that many smaller communities ranked high, and I included a couple of examples in the story.

I only had 18 inches for the story, so I didn’t go much beyond these questions. But because of Boot Camp, I knew I could have. And I even did some additional ones out of curiosity or to practice.

None of this would have been difficult for a reporter with advanced CAR skills. In fact, I could have done much of it in Excel, and I did double check some of my Access work with Excel. But I was pleasantly surprised at how prepared the Boot Camp made me to immediately tackle a story like this.

Beyond the technical skills, Boot Camp also helped get me thinking in a "data state of mind." My colleague Zack Kucharski, who also attended the camp, and I talked about several story ideas on the way home. I thought about this one while running.

Most important, I turned in a good piece on the flood, which is the biggest story in the state of Iowa this year, that had data and watchdog elements.

And without the Boot Camp, I wouldn’t have had the ability to do it.

Gregg Hennigan covers local government out of the Iowa City office of The Gazette.