Data Science for Middle SchoolERs

Dr. Neil Heffernan and Dr. Stacy Shaw seek funding to imbue data science conceptual thinking into the existing OER research. ASSISTments already has 10,000 teachers using EurekraMath/EngageNY Curriculum and about the same number using Illustrative Mathematics/ OpenUp Resources. We want to make it easy for teachers to provide opportunities for their students to learn some data science through the homework questions they already complete, and with funding, we will improve the current curriculum to build greater reasoning around data science.

We are seeking funding to test this idea out with 100 teachers that are already using ASSISTments. One promising aspect of this project is that if it works well, it will easily scale up to impact thousands of teachers quickly. Our goal is not to change the way teachers are teaching their classes per se, but to use our expertise to provide a better learning experience for students and prepare them for future learning in data science.