Data Literacy

This slide deck was presented at East Bay Educational Collaborative Professional Development Center in Warren, Rhode Island on April 12, 2016 where Ruth Krumhansl was a guest speaker. In addition to this presentation, Ruth also led several workshops on EDC Earth Science. The audience was about 45 teachers from all across New England.

Learn more about the workshop.

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 schools? To seek answers to these questions, EDC’s Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) convened an expert panel of both data analysts and educators for a workshop on data literacy.

In 2013, the Oceans of Data Institute (ODI) released Visualizing Oceans of Data: Educational Interface Design report, which offers a set of guidelines for designing interactive tools to engage students with data. ODI applied these guidelines during the development of Ocean Tracks, an online interface that enables students to explor

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".

This program is developing and classroom testing a Web interface and data analysis tools that engage students in scientific investigations using data from the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) Program, NOAA’s Drifter Program, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

Ocean Tracks: Investigating Marine Migrations in a Changing Ocean has piloted several models of curriculum supports to guide student work with data regarding the movements of marine animals and relate these movements to physical oceanographic measurements such as sea surface temperature, chlorophyll, currents and human impacts....