Oceans of Data

The Oceans of Data Institute (ODI)

is dedicated to transforming education to help people succeed in school, work, and life in a data-intensive world.

Learn More
Zoom In! Learning Science with Data

Building high school students’ data skills using authentic Earth Science and Life Science data sets.

Learn More
Ocean Tracks

Web-based visualization and analysis tools to create active learning experiences for students.

Learn More
Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers

Profiling the work of the "Data Practitioner" to inform Community Colleges' big data courses and programs.

Learn More
Real World, Real Science:

Using NASA data to explore weather and climate

Learn More
EDC Earth Science

A curriculum that explores current and compelling questions using authentic data.

Learn More

What's Happening

Upcoming NASEM Workshop on K-12 Data Science

The National Academies is hosting a free workshop, Foundations of Data Science for Students in Grades K-12 , September 13-14. ODI Director, Randy Kochevar, has been invited to be a panelist in a... Read more

European Data Science Study Tour

EDC is organizing a study tour of European Data Science Education and work-based learning models this June, 2022. Joyce Malyn-Smith, Joe Ippolito and Sarah MacGillvray, along with several community... Read more

Four Videos Presenting in the STEM For All Video Showcase

The STEM for all Video Showcase is an opportunity to share our work in 3-minute videos with the public, educators, education researchers, and policy makers. Stop by to watch our videos and join the... Read more

Tweets Follow @oceansofdata

14 hours 3 min ago

EDC's Oceans of Data Institute

@oceansofdata

If you are two- or four- year college faculty building a data science/analytics course, explore our collection of t… https://t.co/XEMBOQNFK7
- Reply
- Retweet
- Favorite
5 days 4 hours ago

EDC's Oceans of Data Institute

@oceansofdata

RT @PCATTTweet: Our next CompTIA A+ course starts on August 31. Your tuition (including Core 1 & 2 exam vouchers) may be free. Take… https://t.co/5oO4XfYA45
- Reply
- Retweet
- Favorite
5 days 8 hours ago

EDC's Oceans of Data Institute

@oceansofdata

In June we were able to hold an in-person teacher workshop for our Building Insights Through Observation project. L… https://t.co/qG6ldlegDC
- Reply
- Retweet
- Favorite

Projects

Samsung Innovation Campus Artificial Intelligence Course - Data as Motivation

The term Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has been around since the 1950s and been much hyped. Yet, it took several decades before computational power was strong enough to support the concept of computers solving problems that normally were only...

Read More
Building Insights Through Observation

Building Insights Through Observation is a four-year project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research the ways in which arts-based instructional methods and geospatial data visualization can be successfully applied by...

Read More
Expanding Access to Data Science Careers

Education Development Center (EDC), in partnership with the Massachusetts Life Science Center (MLSC) and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education...

Read More
Innovation Pathways to Data Careers (IPDC)

An Innovation Pathway is an early career program for students that gives them experience in a specific high-demand industry through college coursework and internships with local employers. ODI was awarded NSF funding in 2021 to design, develop,...

Read More
WeatherX

WeatherX is developing middle-school curriculum units that investigate extreme weather events to promote skills in analyzing large-scale scientific data and interest in data science careers among students in rural areas.

As scientific...

Read More
Preschool Data Collection and Analysis (DCA)

Over three years, the DCA project created and tested problem-solving activities for preK students (4-5-year-olds) that integrate mathematics and computational thinking (CT) by engaging children in data collection and analysis investigations....

Read More
Mentoring New Data Pathways in Community Colleges

As more sectors of the economy come to rely increasingly on data, the demand for skilled data workers is growing at a pace that outstrips the capacity of colleges to develop the programs needed to produce qualified employees....

Read More
Building Data Literacy through the Arts

This collaborative research project, funded by NSF, aims to co-design and study approaches that integrate art and mathematics to promote data literacy learning and instruction for middle school students and teachers. Many existing efforts to...

Read More
Streams of Data: Nurturing Data Literacy in Elementary Earth Science

How do we help students transition from simple data sets that students collect themselves to work with professionally-collected data? Streams of Data will develop and test an approach to support 4th grade students in this transition. We will...

Read More
National Geographic Data Explorations

ODI is collaborating with National Geographic Explorers, educators, and programs to develop three lessons for the National Geographic education resources portal. Designed for use in middle-school classrooms, each lesson uses authentic, scientific...

Read More
Building a Data Science Pathway on California’s Central Coast

EDC’s Oceans of Data Institute worked with participating colleges of the Coast Community College District to strengthen their efforts to develop a regional career pathway for data science specialists. ODI focused on two goals:...

Read More
Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum (SDLC)

The Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum (SDLC) project is developing and studying high school curriculum modules that integrate social justice topics with statistical data investigations to promote skills and interest in...

Read More
Blueprints for Exploring Data with National Geographic

In this exploratory project, ODI will collaborate with National Geographic Explorers, educators, and programs to identify specific datasets and “data stories” that would lend themselves to the creation of compelling learning modules for...

Read More
Exploring Urban Mobility: Using Data to Solve Problems of the Future

Our cities are becoming increasingly “connected.” Cars, traffic signals, and even the roads themselves are utilizing new technologies to communicate with one another— transmitting, analyzing, and responding to data. A single connected (wifi-...

Read More
Data Analytics Technician Advancement (DATA) Program

The Oceans of Data Institute partnered with Columbus State Community College (OH) in an ATE-NSF funded project: Data Analytics Technician Advancement (DATA) Program. The project establishes a DATA Pathway in the central Ohio region to increase...

Read More
Zoom In! Learning Science with Data

The world is increasingly data-driven. To thrive in this world, students a new level of data literacy — the ability to solve problems and support arguments using data.

Zoom In! Learning Science with Data is creating curriculum...

Read More
Real World, Real Science: Using NASA Data to explore Weather and Climate

This NASA-funded collaboration with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) builds on the success of GMRI’S LabVenture Program to create learning experiences focused on exploring the effects of climate change in and around the Gulf...

Read More
Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers

To address the urgent and rapidly growing need for workers proficient in the use of Big Data the Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) of Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) will work with four community colleges to create a career pathway...

Read More
Building Global Interest in Data Literacy: A Dialogue

ODI and IBM teamed up for a three-day workshop, October 4-6, 2015, which convened a panel of 12 professionals from both data-intensive industries and K-16 education. The...

Read More
An Occupational Skills Profile for the Big-Data-Enabled Specialist

Professionals in many career fields now find that researching, analyzing and integrating data is essential to their work. Much of this change has occurred because of the rise of big data–gigantic data sets that are increasingly informing...

Read More
Ocean Tracks College Edition

Ocean Tracks College Edition (OT-CE) is a three-year research and development project funded by the National Science Foundation, involving a collaboration between EDC and the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of...

Read More
Professional Development to Integrate the Practices of Science and Engineering into Earth & Space Science Education

The Next Generation Science Standards place a strong emphasis on students’ mastery of “practices” of science and engineering. Among these practices is “Analyzing and...

Read More
The Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP)

Awarded in the fall of 2013 by the National Science Foundation (grant # 1434570), EDC is working with Concord Consortium and the University of Minnesota on the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP) project. The CODAP team is developing and...

Read More
EarthCube Education End-Users' Workshop

EarthCube is an NSF initiative to develop a national cyberinfrastructure which will give researchers and students easy access to earth data and models in a way that is intended to catalyze...

Read More
Ocean Tracks: Investigating Marine Migrations in a Changing Ocean

Ocean Tracks: Investigating Marine Migrations in a Changing Ocean (Ocean Tracks) was a two-year Phase I research and development project funded by NSF (grant #1222413). A collaboration between EDC and Stanford University’s Hopkins...

Read More
Bridging the Gap Between Tabletop Models and the Earth System

This classroom research project seeks to understand more about how teachers teach and students learn using physical models in Earth Science. A key finding is that classroom teaching with models tends to be disconnected from teaching with data,...

Read More
FIRE: Making Meaning from Geoscience Data

This laboratory research project seeks to understand more about how students form inferences and interpretations as they view geoscience data visualizations. Individual participants view data visualizations of topography/bathymetry or ocean...

Read More
InTeGrate

InTeGrate is a nationwide effort to transform undergraduate geoscience education in such a way as to increase the flow of individuals with Earth expertise into the employment pipeline and to contribute to solving national grand challenges of...

Read More
Oceans of Data: What Is Needed to Support Students Learning with Large Scientific Databases?

The practice of science and engineering is being revolutionized by the development of cyberinfrastructures for accessing near real-time and archived observatory data. To inform efforts at bridging scientific cyberinfrastructures to the classroom...

Read More
Professional Development to Improve the Spatial Thinking of Earth Science Teachers and Their Students

Spatial thinking involves drawing meaning from the position, shape, orientation, trajectory, or configuration of objects or phenomena. For any kind of data displayed on a map or cross-section, spatial thinking is likely to be an important...

Read More
Data-Enhanced Investigations for Climate Change Education (DICCE)

With support from the National Science Foundation, EDC is working with SRI International and NASA in the development and piloting of interactive websites for high school classroom climate-change investigations. The websites allow high school...

Read More
Other Worlds: Other Earths

The Other Worlds: Other Earths project aims to give high school students first-hand experience in gathering, analyzing and interpreting data. In two laboratory modules, the students use online telescopes to search for exoplanets. During...

Read More
EDC Earth Science

EDC Earth Science, developed as part of the NSF-funded Foundation Science project at EDC (grant #0439443) and published by...

Read More

Featured Resources

Preschool Data Toolbox

The Preschool Data Toolbox is a teacher-facing app plus digital teacher guide (available in the Apple and Android stores or online) that provides lesson plans for a series of data-focused investigations. The app allows teachers and preschoolers to...

Learn more
Profile of an Ideal Pathway Director

The colleges affiliated with the Coast Community College District (CCCD) in Southern California collaborate on delivering career pathways in several industry sectors. Their successful operation largely depends upon the individuals serving in the...

Learn more
Zoom In! Science

Zoom In! is a free, Web-based platform that helps high school students build their data literacy through “deep dives” into real-world biology and Earth science problems using authentic data sets. Each Zoom In blended learning module is a multi-day,...

Learn more
Measuring Data Skills in Undergraduate Student Work: Development of a Scoring Rubric

Data literacy, or students’ abilities to understand, interpret, and think critically about data, is an increasing need in K–16 science education. Ocean Tracks College Edition (OT-CE) sought to address this need by creating a set of learning modules...

Learn more
Guide for Data Worker Internships

To speed and ease the transition from education to employment in data fields, many community colleges are establishing data internships. Internships provide students with immediate opportunities to apply their data skills and knowledge to the tasks...

Learn more
Investigating Income Inequality in the U.S.: Module Overview and Sample Lessons

The Investigating Income Inequality in the U.S. module focuses on describing, comparing, and making sense of quantitative variables. Students deepen their understanding of this content by investigating questions such as: How have incomes for higher...

Learn more
Webinar Recording & Slides: Tools for Building Big Data Career Pathways at Community Colleges

On July 8, we presented our Tools for Building Big Data Career Pathways at Community Colleges in an AMATYC webinar. Our presenters shared how they used the tools developed by our NSF-funded project Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers at their...

Learn more
Big Data Stackable Credentials Report

This report describes the efforts of four community colleges, Bunker Hill CC (MA), Johnson County CC (KS), Normandale CC (MN) and Sinclair CC (OH), who partnered with EDC on Creating Pathways to Big Data Careers, a project funded by the National...

Learn more
Resources for Educators Using Data in the Classroom

EDC's Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) has compiled a list of data activities, lessons, and resources for the classroom, sorted by grade level: PreK | K-16 | Elementary School | Middle School | Middle and High School | High School | High School and...

Learn more
Building Global Interest in Data Literacy: A Dialogue-Workshop Report

What does it mean to be data literate in the world of “big data”? What should we be teaching students to better prepare them to participate in today’s workforce and society? What steps need to be taken to develop critical data literacy skills in...

Learn more