Math Modules

Have your students ever asked “Why do I need to know this?” or “When will I use this in the ‘real world’?”

Data science is an ideal tool to provide real-world context to the concepts you are already teaching in your classroom. Every subject area has data.

Learn how to use interesting data and data visualizations to engage your students in the content you are teaching in class via the modules below. The modules are separated into grade and subject areas based on what state standards they help meet, but your students might find any and all of the covered topics interesting even if they are beyond the listed level.

And if data science is brand-new to you too, check out our What is Data Science? handout for a brief overview of data science and K-12.

Lesson Plans:

Leak Mead Water Levels:
This module will allow students to create line graphs from data sets and explore trends in data to answer questions.

Tornadoes in Missouri:
This module will allow students to investigate the distribution of data, including measures of center and variation. Students will display and interpret data using dot plots, histograms, boxplots, and circle graphs.

Penguins:
This module will ask students to use sample data to make inferences about a population. It will ask students to compare distributions of data for two or more populations visually, and through statistical measures of center and variation.

Gapminder—Life Expectancy and Income:
This module will allow students to examine scatter plots and interpret data. They will be able to understand different patterns of association and lines of best fit. They will use linear models of two variable data to explain and model real-life situations.

Global Temperature, Ice Sheets, and Ocean Levels:
This module will allow students to construct and interpret scatter plots from real-world data. Students will have an opportunity to work with linear models, residuals, and correlation.

Gapminder—Happiness and Income:
This module will allow students to experience logarithmic scales and why they are beneficial when graphing certain types of data.

Data and Districts:

This module looks at the intersection between the constitutional principle of apportionment, partisan gerrymandering, and data science. Students will develop an understanding of the intersection of data and public policy while engaging with a real-world issue.

Data Science Outreach