Data Mining in the Math Classroom.

  I've been hearing more and more about data mining.  I've decided it is time to look at what it is and how math is used because it is a real life application.   In many ways, it something to know more about as companies use data mining.

Data mining is simply the automated analysis of data looking for patterns and relationships among the data.  Sounds a lot like the definition of mathematics. 

Data mining uses aspects from linear algebra, multivariate statistics and optimization and the calculations can be quite sophisticated.   It is used in real life to find the best traffic route for the morning and evening traffic reports provided by both radio and television or places the tagging on our selfies, or prices of sale items or which movie to see.  We've all used the results of data mining.

This topic is important for students to be introduced to because  it is a prevalent part of our world.  There are a variety of lessons out there on data mining.  Texas CTE Resource Center has a nice introduction to the topic which requires students to do research to find the answers to several questions. 

The Kenan Fellows Program has a lesson on understanding data mining.  This one requires the school to download R statistical software to the servers along with the necessary data sets to analyze.  The lesson includes the lesson plan, student worksheets, and appropriate assessments.  This is geared more for AP statistics but could be done with any higher level math class.

We know that sites such as Facebook have gotten in trouble for using data mining but where does some of the data come from?  The site Teaching Privacy has a full lesson plan focused on your digital footprint and what information you leave with sites as you surf the internet. 

This lesson describes big data which is data that is too big to analyze by normal methods which in a sense describes data mining.  I love that it includes videos, questions, and a discussion of the exponential growth of data. 

Once students understand the basics of data mining, the University of Edinburgh offers data sets appropriate for students to practice data mining.  The sets include those the university deems as interesting and those that are not as good so students can look at both to determine which is better.  The data sets cover topics like particle physics, psychological data, brain-computer interface data, molecular bioactivity for drug design, etc.

So if you want to address the topic of data mining in your math class, this will give you the ability to teach it.  I am trying to figure out where I can integrate it in my lesson plans for next year. 

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Personally, I believe this is an important topic to introduce and it provides the basis of an authentic task using real world information and provides an opportunity for students to learn more about who uses data mining and for what.