A 3-year, $1.1 million project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Data Science Corps program will enable NC State researchers to leverage partnerships between data scientists, researchers, data science education experts and teachers to develop high school students’ data acumen, decision making using data and use of data tools.

“One of the most important skills for everyday life is to be able to make good decisions with and from data,” said Gemma Mojica, director of the Hub for Innovation and Research in Statistics and Data Science Education [HI-RiSE] at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. “We all encounter data as we go about our daily routines whether it is in the media, checking weather forecasts, using information from apps or smart devices. This project will give us the opportunity to engage students in activities that will help them develop the habits of mind and dispositions to be good consumers and decision makers. Hopefully, they will be able to build knowledge and skills and use these experiences as they encounter data in their day-to-day lives.”

This project is led by principal investigator (PI) Mojica, along with co-PIs Emily Thrasher, research scholar at the Friday Institute, and Taryn Shelton, K-12 data science coordinator at the NC State Data Science and AI Academy. Research Scholar Kevin Winn from the Friday Institute will be the evaluator lead. 

The project has three major goals: Goal 1: Create datasets to engage high school students in the Data Life Cycle by cultivating existing partnerships between 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 ninth-12th grade learning spaces; co-construct materials with classroom teachers and data science education experts to develop students’ data acumen in data science summer camps; and support teachers’ professional learning to co-facilitate data science camps and disseminate work in their communities. These summer camps will be hosted at the Friday Institute in 2027. Summer camps will be hosted again at the Friday Institute in 2028 and also in eastern and western parts of North Carolina.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to collaborate with teachers to design learning experiences that make data meaningful for high school students,” said Thrasher. “This project brings together authentic datasets, teacher expertise and real-world problem-solving to help students see themselves as capable data users and decision makers. Students will build confidence in making sense of data and seeing its relevance to their lives and futures, which makes this work impactful.”