Pre-K and K

Big Data, Big Promise

Ruth Krumhansl, Founder of the Oceans of Data Institute (ODI), describes all the ways big data is changing lives today, the challenges that big data brings, and why ODI is working to transform education to include more data-relevant instruction.

"Data will be part of [student's] future and it should be part of their instruction too".

 

The Potential of Data Collection and Analysis Activities for Preschoolers: A Formative Study with Teachers

To support preschool children’s learning about data in an applied way that allows children to leverage their existing mathematical knowledge (i.e. counting, sorting, classifying, comparing) and apply it to answering authentic, developmentally appropriate research questions with data. To accomplish this ultimate goal, a design-based research approach was used to develop and test a classroom-based preschool intervention that includes hands-on, play-based investigations with a digital app that supports and scaffolds the investigation process for teachers and children.

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.

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:

Are There White Sharks Swimming Among Us?

The company Strava was in the news recently for its ability to display highly accurate maps using position data from personal fitness devices (e.g., Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc.). Not only are GPS fitness devices tracking a person’s mileage on land, many also track water activities, such as swimming, to within a few meters.

The Relationship Between Direct and Data-Mediated Knowledge of the World

About 20 years ago, psychologist Lynn Liben presented an model of the relationships among a learner, an external (i.e. not mental) representation, and those aspects of the real world represented by the representation (the “referent”). Liben notes that the learner can learn either through direct interactions with the real world or through interactions with a representation.

What precursor understandings underlie the ability to make meaning from data?

(June 2013)

Young children have the ability to reconstruct events based on the traces left behind by those events. Would nurturing this ability help them make meaning from data they did not collect themselves?...

Read more

 

 

Back to Top