Collaborative Research: Designing and Exploring a Model for Data Science Learning for Middle School Youth

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Data science is becoming increasingly relevant in the workplace and everyday life; therefore, there is a need for students to have opportunities to work with data and view data science as inviting and feasible. This project will focus on the integration of computer science and mathematics through data science in after-school data-science clubs and camps in rural and urban settings with middle school youth. The project will create modules for teaching and learning data science that can be shared with educators in informal and formal settings. The modules will engage youth in conducting their own data investigations using computer tools for engaging with large and small data sets. Data science education is a new field and the project will contribute to developing knowledge about how to best teach data science and how to create effective learning environments for students. The project is funded by the STEM+Computing program, which seeks to address emerging challenges in computational STEM areas through the applied integration of computational thinking and computing activities within disciplinary STEM teaching and learning in early childhood education through high school (preK-12).The project will use a design-based research framework to develop, test, and revise the learning modules in urban and rural settings. The data science concepts include variability in data, organizing data, data structure, data representations, and statistical reasoning. These concepts are connected to both mathematics and computer science concepts. The project seeks to develop knowledge about how to design learning environments for students to learn data science using computational tools. The research questions include examining the design of the units and students' learning about data science concepts. The data to be collected include interviews with students, observations from the after-school clubs and camps, and students' work from the modules. Educators who lead the learning experiences will also provide feedback to inform revision and implementation.