Ohio State Marion Associate Professor of Physics, Chris Orban and Associate Professor of Mathematics, Scott Zimmerman recently won an Ohio State Energy Partners (OSEP) Academic Collaboration Award of $20,000 for their project titled “The STEMcoding Data Science High School Curriculum Initiative”. This funding expands the work of the STEMcoding project, Ohio State's flagship effort to integrate computer science and data science concepts into high school math and science classes.
The new curriculum describes hands-on data gathering activities and data analysis as well as activities where students download data from federal agencies like NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
These activities will be shared with the network of teachers that have developed around the STEMcoding project since it began in 2017. Students at The Ohio State University often contribute to and appear in instructional videos that explain these activities at a level that is appropriate for high school students. These videos are available on the STEMcoding YouTube channel.
“Compared to high school data science efforts at other universities, our curriculum focuses on physical science, atmospheric science, and sustainability.” Zimmerman said in their proposal.
Funding from the OSEP award will provide resources and training to high school math and science teachers. The new curriculum helps students develop spreadsheet skills as well as computer science skills, which are both important for the workforce.
“Another big theme in the curriculum is ‘data storytelling’. Students need to understand how to ask questions of data, and to focus on those questions as they consider different ways to visualize the results.” said Orban.
The two Ohio State Marion faculty members are excited to expand the curriculum and to work with more teachers. Interested teachers and educators should fill out this contact form to learn more.
About the award
In 2017, The Ohio State University and Ohio State Energy Partners (OSEP) entered into a comprehensive energy management partnership. As part of its commitment to academic collaboration, OSEP contributes $810,000 annually to the university to create a grant program that supports faculty, staff and student-led projects, especially with connections to sustainability. The Office of Academic Affairs at Ohio State works with OSEP to administer this program.