Quarto output executable RMD/QMD file with text includes

I'm using quarto to put together an assignments for my a course, giving them the option to use either Python (.ipynb) or R (.rmd) to complete it. I'm giving them a template to get started, and having them edit some existing code.

I have some generic preamble & question text that I want to be uniform between the R and Python versions of the document, as well as some generic imports for Python (e.g., matplotlib) and R (e.g., ggplot2) that I want to import for each assignment. So my strategy is to have two documents (Assignment1_py.qmd & Assignment1_R.qmd), where the code blocks are different, but the preamble, question text, etc. are brought in using includes. An example for the python version is at the bottom. The keep-ipynb: true command allows me to output the a nicely formatted .ipynb file, which the students can then work with.

My question is: is there a way to do something similar with R? There isn't an equivalent keep-rmd: true option. If they download the raw .QMD file, then the code works, but the include files are not rendered. The best option I've found so far is to set keep-md: true, to keep the intermediary .md file. It works, but the code blocks are not formatted properly (shown below) so I need a second second script to reformat the code cells and save as a .rmd file that the students can work with. Its not a huge problem, but I'm curious if there is a more elegant solution?

Python

---
title: "Assignment 1 Py"
jupyter: python3
execute:
  keep-ipynb: true
---







```{python}
import pandas as pd
import datetime as dt
df = pd.read_csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GEOS300/AssignmentData/main/Climate_Summary_BB.csv",
            parse_dates=['TIMESTAMP'],
            index_col=['TIMESTAMP']
            )

Start ='2023-06-21 0000'
End ='2023-06-21 2359'

Selection = df.loc[(
    (df.index>=dt.datetime.strptime(Start, '%Y-%m-%d %H%M'))
    &
    (df.index<=dt.datetime.strptime(End, '%Y-%m-%d %H%M'))
    )]

Selection.head()

```

R

---
title: "Assignment 1 R"
execute:
  keep-md: true
---






```{r}
#|echo: True

library("reshape2")
library("ggplot2")


df <- read.csv(file = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GEOS300/AssignmentData/main/Climate_Summary_BB.csv')
df[['TIMESTAMP']] <- as.POSIXct(df[['TIMESTAMP']],format = "%Y-%m-%d %H%M")

head(df)

```

MD Output for R

::: {.cell}

```{.r .cell-code}
#|echo: True

list.of.packages <- c("ggplot2", "reshape2")
new.packages <- list.of.packages[!(list.of.packages %in% installed.packages()[,"Package"])]
if(length(new.packages)) install.packages(new.packages)
library("reshape2")
library("ggplot2")
```
:::

from Quarto output executable RMD/QMD file with text includes