Developing Secondary Students' Data Acumen

This three-year project will leverage partnerships among data scientists, researchers, data science education experts and teachers to develop students' data acumen, decision making using data, and use of data tools. The project has three major goals. Goal 1: Create data sets to engage high school students in the Data Life Cycle by cultivating existing partnerships among data scientists, researchers, and data science educators. Goal 2: Co-design curricular materials with teachers and data science education experts that engage high school students in the Data Life Cycle through problem-solving with real data to develop their data acumen. Goal 3: Engage high school students, including those in rural communities, with the Data Life Cycle through problem-solving with real data to develop their data acumen in informal learning spaces. To achieve these goals, the project team will collaborate with researchers and data scientists to gather and prepare real data to design curriculum materials for 9th-12th grade learning spaces. They will co-construct materials with classroom teachers and data science educators to design and implement curricular materials and learning experiences to develop students' data acumen in data science summer camps. Researchers will also support teachers' professional learning to co-facilitate data science camps and disseminate work in their communities. Researchers on the project team will use qualitative approaches including cognitive interviews and observations to glean knowledge regarding student learning and teachers' experiences with co-creation and collaboration of data science materials. This project is co-funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.