Middle

Memes have become ubiquitous artifacts of contemporary digital culture that integrate visual and textual components in order to communicate about a topic. They can be used as forms of visual argumentation that draw on cultural references while facilitating critical commentary that typically results in humorous and caustic dialogue. In this paper, we investigate the meme creation tool, DataMeme where middle school students explore graphs then construct GIFs using existing Gyphy GIFs and overlay their own text onto them in order to communicate about the meaning behind the data.

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships. The 7th grade unit involved students analyzing data graphs about adolescent friendships and crafting comic narratives to convey perspectives on that data.

The WeatherX project has developed two curriculum units for middle-school science classrooms. In the Local Unit, students collect and analyze weather data from their local area and compare with climate data to investigate: What is typical weather for our area? In the Mt. Washington Unit, students compare extreme weather in their local area and on New Hampshire's Mount Washington to investigate: What is extreme weather?

EDC's Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) has compiled a list of data activities, lessons, and resources for the classroom, sorted by grade level:

Research in the sciences is currently undergoing a massive transformation, as technological advancements shift big data into the forefront of investigative tools, and early education is looking for solutions to keep up. The Ocean Tracks program offers a structured learning tool that supports both students and teachers in tackling big data in the classroom.