Data Science In High School

 

I think it is important to offer math classes to students that they can use in real life, especially if they are not planning to go to college.  I've offered a class to students so they could learn construction or trades math, a class on the math involved in some of the Pixar movies, and of course practical financial math that covered credit cards, loans, insurance, and just about everything they'd need once they left school.  A new course that I want to offer is one on data science. 

Data science is a field where people take data and try to make sense of it.  This requires the use of scientific methods, algorithms, and assorted processes to separate the data into identified trends.  Companies use this information to make informed decisions to help the business grow while making a profit.  It is important for companies to be aware of the latest trends so they make the proper decisions.

There are many reasons students should study data science.  First, it is one of the fastest growing fields out there and it is expected to grow over 36 percent between now and 2031. It is an in demand career. In addition, it is a field that pays well, over $100,000 per year on average. In addition, it offers a variety of possible jobs from data analyst, to a machine learning engineer, to data base administrator, to data scientist, to so much more.  The jobs available range from health care to manufacturing, to the financial sector, and more.  

Data science requires knowledge of programming, modeling and analysis, statistics and probability, linear algebra and calculus, being able to visualize the data, machine and deep learning, data wrangling, data base management and data processing.

By offering students a taste of data science in high school, it gives students the chance to see if they are interested in pursuing this in college.  It can also expose students to this topic who might not ever think about going into this field. Should you want to offer this at your school but don't know where to go.  Heard off to the data science course at youcubed.org. 

This course is a year long exploratory experience that gives students a taste of it.  The course is free and comes with professional development so you can feel confident in offering the class.  You can explore the first unit without signing up for the class. The first unit focuses on data ethics, types of data, creating visual representations, figuring out the story the data tells, and more.  This unit is designed to take about a month. 

The unit comes with everything from the resources, slides, student reflections, samples of student work, student concept organizer, student portfolio, and software requirements.  In addition, it view all the activities for each section of the unit so you can check everything out ahead of time for planning purposes.  I realize that many schools are unwilling to add new classes like this without going through a ton of hoops.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day and weekend.