VISUALIZING OCEANS OF DATA Educational Interface Design
Science is data-intensive, but today’s science education is not. In most classrooms, students’ work with data is limited to reading graphs prepared by others, or at best collecting simple data sets themselves. While these student-collected data sets allow students to begin building their data proficiency, the conclusions that can be drawn and the lessons that can be learned from these data are limited in scope and can sometimes be compromised by data quality.
The Oceans of Data project has made an attempt to define and confront what is “hard” for students and teachers who attempt to use large, online professional data sets. We feel passionately that it’s important for us to do this to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s world.