Educators are integral to Michigan's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) ecosystem.  Expert teachers, conveying the excitement of STEM through interdisciplinary, hands-on inquiry, and problem solving, are our most precious resource. Our region has many outstanding STEM teachers pre-K through college, as well as outside of formal learning environments.

Bootstrap crafts free, research-based, integrated Data Science modules for Math, Science, Business and Social Studies classes grades 5-12:

• Leverage students' curiosity about the world around them to inspire real data analysis and original research.
• Lessons are available for data visualization, measures of center and spread, programming, linear regression, and more.
• Mix and match to create anything from a one-week intro to a full-year course!
• And when students have completed our K-12 materials, there's a smooth pathway all the way to Data Science in Python via the Data-Centric Introduction to Computing textbook!

Bootstrap:Data Science is a balanced curriculum, addressing the four ingredients of K-12 Data Science.  

Download a one-page summary of the course.

Read the "Data Science & Algebra 2: Have your Cake, and Eat it, too!" article on the Bootstrap Blog.

Week of Inspirational Math (WIM)

Choose your own maths adventure with interactive tools that allow you to build a custom playlist of inspirational maths activities and messages!  Check out these pre-made playlists curated by the youcubed team for first grade, middle school and high school!

Data Science Movement

Jo Boaler and the youcubed team are co-leading a movement to integrate data science into K-12 mathematics, and preparing lots of resources to help teachers, as states across the US shift their goals to include data science. You can watch an introductory video here.
 

Data Science Lessons

This page shares five units of youcubed lessons for grades 6-10 that introduce students (and teachers) to data science.

• Teacher Online Course: 21st Century Teaching and Learning

• Unit 1: Data Is Everywhere

• Unit 2: Working With Data Analysis Tools

• Unit 3: Measures of Center & Spread

• Unit 4: Understanding Variability

• Unit 5: A Community Data Collection Project

The units start with an introduction to the concept of data and move to lessons that invite students to explore their own data sets.  These lessons teach important content through a pattern-seeking, exploratory approach, and are designed to engage students actively. The culminating unit is a citizen science project that gives students an opportunity to conduct a data inquiry. The lessons accompany a new online course for teachers, where some of the lessons are featured, along with other lesson ideas. These lessons are offered with ideas for in-person or online teaching, and can be taught at any time of year.

Data Talks

On this page, you can download a paper explaining what a data talk is, then try one or more of the data talks below with your students. Data talks are short 5-10 minute classroom discussions to help students develop data literacy. This pedagogical strategy is similar in structure to a number talk, but instead of numbers students are shown a data visual and asked what interests them. In a data talk the teacher does not have to be an expert in the topic of the data visualization – if a student asks a question, you can say that you do not know the answer but would love to find out, together!  This is a nice opportunity to model not knowing, and embracing uncertainty. Data talks are intended to pique students’ curiosity and encourage question asking, and to help them understand and “read” the data-filled world in which they live.

A Picture Book Introduction to Data Science

The youcubed team collaborated with graphic artists to create a picture book about data science and data literacy. They recommend that students discuss the different images and think about the messages they convey.

They are providing 4 versions of the picture book. One is a set of color posters, another is a set of black and white posters that could be colored by students. A third is a color booklet that is ordered in a way that you can organize into a printable 12-page booklet. Look at the posters or the thumbnails below to see the intended order of the pictures. The fourth is a black and white version of the booklet. The youcubed team hopes you and your students enjoy this resource!

Cybersecurity in Education: What Teachers, Parents and Students Should Know

While online learning provides so many positive opportunities for learners and teachers alike, it is more important than ever to strengthen cybersecurity defenses to deal with new and emerging attacks. This article is designed to help provide teachers, parents and students with the information they need to identify common cyber threats, as well as tips on cybersecurity best practices helping you safely ease into the new school year.

STEM education myths in early grades

This article from District Administration is about how students see more success in K-12 when they tackle STEM concepts in early grades. It lists five myths:

1. Myth 1: STEM overwhelms young learners
2. Myth 2: STEM overwhelms elementary school teachers
3. Myth 3: We don’t have time for STEM
4. Myth 4: We don’t have money for STEM
5. Myth 5: The correct order is basics first, then STEM (also known as “wait until they get older”)

Open-source science resources:
• Sprocket by Lucas Education Research
• CREATE for STEM Institute and SOLID Start, developed and offered through Michigan State University. Read how Kentwood Public Schools uses Create for STEM
• Michigan Open Book Project, created by Michigan teachers and includes resources for many subjects
• Inquiry Hub, developed by teachers in Denver, Colorado, the University of Colorado and Northwestern University. Read how Godwin Heights High Schools uses IHub
• OpenSciEd, created by a consortium of curriculum directors 
• Carbon Time, developed through a collaboration of scientists, teachers, graduate students and IT specialists, and led by MSU (East Kentwood Freshman Center teacher Wendy Johnson contributed)
• Interactions, a collaboration between CREATE for STEM at MSU and the Concord Consortium (East Kentwood Freshman Center teacher Kristin Meyer contributed)