Tumblehome at the Data Science Education K–12: Research to Practice Conference
From February 17th to 19th, Penny Noyce and I attended and presented at the inaugural Data Science Education K–12: Research to Practice Conference in San Antonio, Texas. We learned a lot from 200+ other attendees from a range of sectors (schools, higher education, nonprofits, etc.) from across the US and abroad, all working on K–12 data science education initiatives. We left feeling energized to continue Tumblehome’s work as part of this broader K–12 data science education community/movement.
One of the Puffins slides we presented, showing puffin data cards
On the first day of the conference, Penny and I presented a brief overview of our Puffins project, demonstrating how we use puffin data cards and games, historical data on puffins in the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP), and accessible AI tools, such as classification models in Teachable Machine and AI-powered birdfeeders (such as Netvue’s Birdfy) to engage middle school students in studying the ecology of puffins in science classes throughout Maine.
Dan Damelin of the Concord Consortium and I led a workshop on sonification that grew out of COVID-Inspired Data Science Education through Epidemiology (CIDSEE) project, which we now refer to as “Data Detectives.” Sonification is representing or interpreting data through sound. We called our workshop “Listening to Time-Series Data: Sonification to Increase Engagement and Learning.” Just like youth in Data Detectives Clubs, attendees used CODAP’s Sonify plugin to make and hear sonic representations of time-series graphs. We are currently researching how the sonification plugin, enhanced as part of the CIDSEE project, affects how middle school youth understand time-series data they can both see and hear (see also this recent article by Dan Damelin).
Jacob (left) with Lonny Chen (center) and Jonas Mayani (right) of Data Safari
Other highlights of the conference included learning more about:
Data Safari, an organization in Tanzania focused on middle school data science education that I had been in touch with by email and encouraged to attend the conference;
An exciting NASA summer internship opportunity where high schoolers do research with Globe Observer data;
Efforts by EDC to integrate data science into mainstream subjects in PK–12 in Massachusetts;
Creating physical data sculptures as a way of engaging more tactile and arts-oriented students; and
There was also a fun conference party where DJ R Tyler live-coded to produce music—followed the next day by a workshop he led on how to do this yourself. At dinner the second night, we discussed potential future directions for CODAP. And on the final day, we got a first look at ongoing work to develop robust national learning progressions for data science in K–12.
Reflecting on the entire conference, it’s clear that K–12 data science education has gained critical momentum in recent years and will develop in exciting ways in the future, with increasing numbers of students being exposed to key 21st-century data skills. We are excited to see how this field develops as we continue our work on data science education at Tumblehome!
