Looking Back on 2021

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Looking Back on 2021

As 2021 draws to a close, we here at ODI wanted to wish everyone peace and joy at the holidays. We also wanted to share with you some of the good news that the year has brought, with a bounty of new beginnings, projects wrapping up, and progress all along the way.

Many of our projects at ODI aim to integrate data literacy skills into K-12 classroom education. Some highlights from this strand of work include:

The Preschool Data project tested and revised a set of nine investigations and an app – the Preschool Data Toolbox – for preschool classrooms. These activities engage preschoolers in the investigation process (asking questions, collecting data, graphing, and discussing what it means) in a way that is fun and uses hands-on activities, books, and physical movement.

The Streams of Data project developed activities designed to engage 4th grade students in an investigation of river flooding behavior using river height and precipitation data. The activities were virtually tested in the spring. The project is gearing up to return to classrooms in the new year to test a full lesson sequence.

This year on the Building Data Literacy through the Arts project, arts and mathematics teachers in four middle schools co-designed and piloted data literacy and arts units that lasted from two to ten weeks. The units focused on exploring data related to social issues such as middle school friendships, climate change, economic and social inequities, healthy neighborhoods and time use, wellbeing. Students engaged in art forms related to comic making, photography, and dance to explore and communicate findings from the data.

This year saw the launch of Building Insights through Observation project, in partnership with the Nurture Nature Center. The team completed a training in “Visual Thinking Strategies,” and has recruited its first cohort of middle school teachers.

The WeatherX project team completed remote/hybrid classroom implementation of alpha versions of its multi-week units Investigating Weather in Our Local Area and Investigating Extreme Weather on Mount Washington, began to revise both units, and has started to test an in-person beta version of the first unit with middle school science teachers in rural regions of the Northeast.

The Strengthening Data Literacy across the Curriculum (SDLC) project team tested two new learning modules, Investigating Income Inequality in the U.S. and Investigating Immigration to the U.S., in mathematics classes of three urban Northeast high schools. Their ongoing work with a variety of teachers and hundreds of students has contributed to significant growth in students’ interests in statistics and data analysis as well as understanding of fundamental data practices after completing the modules.

The Innovation Pathways to Data Careers (IPDC) project team has established a research practice partnership with the Burlington, Chelsea, and Everett Public Schools, developing instructional activities to help Social Studies teachers meet the Massachusetts State Dept. of Education’s high school Civics requirement for student-driven Civics projects. They are working with Social Studies teachers to help students access and use available data sets to develop “data-rich” Civics projects, and are building a Data Visualization course targeting grade 11 and Python+Data course targeting grade 12, which will be piloted over this year and next.

IPDC is one of several ODI projects aimed at helping students prepare for careers in data science fields. Other exciting developments in this area include:

EDC staff were funded by Samsung to run an online Samsung AI Course for Winter 2021-2022, which received more than 750 applications for 55 spots! The course began in November 2021 and will wrap up in May 2022.

On the Mentoring New Data Pathways in Community Colleges project, the college mentors, who have been working with ODI staff for the past several years, have now successfully guided four mentee colleges through the tools included in our Data Pathway Development Process, aiding them in designing Data Science Career Pathways at their institutions that are aligned to the skills and knowledge required by local industries. Two of the mentee colleges launched courses this year and two will launch in the fall of 2022 (stay tuned for more info in our January newsletter). Our community of practice has continued to meet and share resources for developing data programs, growing to more than 60 members at 34 institutions.

EDC led the formation of a Coalition consisting of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC), MassBioEd Foundation, and LabCentral-Ignite to develop a comprehensive strategy addressing the Massachusetts Data Science Workforce Challenge. Phase 1 of this strategy focused on creating a four-panel series, called Expanding Access to Data Science Careers, to engage and expand the community for the challenge. Phase 2 of the Coalition’s work is focused on planning, outreach, and development activities in the coming year. Issue briefs and panel recordings are available.

Assuming that international travel remains possible in the new year, EDC will be hosting a European Study Tour exploring European internship models/opportunities focused on data science. Participating community colleges include Bunker Hill (MA), Sinclair (OH), Normandale (MN), and Johnson County (Kansas) from the Creating Pathways for Big Data Careers project.

It is gratifying to see, when all of these accomplishments are put together in one place, that ODI’s work is still progressing despite the challenges of the past year. Wherever this note finds you, and wherever our paths may cross, we send you all our warmest wishes for a healthy and happy New Year!

Randy Kochevar
ODI Director

Visit us online:
oceansofdata.org
edc.org

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