Exploring Data Science Through Video Games
Exploring Data Science Through Video Games
Exploring Data Science Through Video Games
By Marleen Villeroy
September 08, 2020
Summary
In most schools, the ideas and practices of data science can be hard to find.
Students may collect data and explore data representations in science classes, or they might encounter basic statistics in a math class.
The global push to include computer science education in schools offers a new opportunity for expanding the teaching of data science-for exploring how computers collect, sort, and filter data; how data can be transformed and combined; and how data can be represented to tell stories about a whole host of phenomena.
New York City's CS4All initiative, which aims to bring computer science experiences to every public school student in the city by 2025, even lists data and data analysis as a strand of its K-12 CS Education Framework.
We think there are also great opportunities for informal learning experiences that support and broaden data science learning outside the classroom.
In this way, core data science practices are situated in a context that is meaningful and close to the children's interests and simultaneously highlights the prevalence of data science in our lives.
As such it helps teachers to see what their students are learning about data and data analysis, and offers insight into the topics that are particularly challenging for each student.
Using a dashboard that tracks students' activities in the game, teachers can examine which data representations students use, whether students are making reasonable choices about what kind of songs to record, or whether students' predictions about the popularity of a particular genre align with the data on listener interests.
While we have found Beats Empire to be a powerful tool for helping students to see the real-world use of data, students should also be encouraged to be critical about the role of data in society.
AlgoWorld invites middle and high school students to think about how data algorithms, and how data is manipulated or cleansed, contributes to social inequity.
Reference
Villeroy, M. (2020, September 08). Exploring Data Science Through Video Games. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/2020/09/08/exploring-data-science-through-video-games/