Data for Healthy Communities: A Public Interest Pilot Course Designed to Develop K-12 Data Literacy

Data analytics skills are in high demand in a wide variety of professions and data is increasingly present in our everyday lives. Considering this, educators should be equipped to prepare future data scientists, but also data literate citizens. This project engages high school students in the real-world practice of data analytics to promote the public interest. The research team is partnering with a local public STEM high school to design, evaluate, and publicly share an enrichment course that introduces students to data analytics in the context of public health. Integrating data science education and public health will enable students to engage in meaningful data-driven problem solving while promoting civic engagement. A key challenge in introducing data skills in K-12 is addressing barriers to access. To cope with these barriers, the course design incorporates the use of spreadsheets to engage students in computational thinking. This poster will present preliminary assessment results from the 3-week enrichment course conducted in January 2024. This project contributes to the ongoing discussion of K-12 data science education by demonstrating the value of contextualizing data science as a key competency for 21st century public service.