Student Voices

The Motivation: Why students enroll

They wanted an alternative to traditional math classes.

Some students enrolled because they had not liked or had not done well in math courses and wanted to have a different option.

They were interested.

Most students had not heard a lot about data science before, but some who had were excited to discover that a data science class was offered. Other students were excited by the opportunity to build their experience with, and knowledge of coding.

They thought it would be useful.

“I’ve really always found math to kind of be something that I’ll never use in life. And now taking this class, I found that … with data science, it’ll be something that I could actually use.”

They wanted more preparation for future coursework.

One student saw data science as a great course to take before taking AP Statistics as a senior while another thought data science could help them improve their ACT score in science.

They thought it would be useful in their careers.

“I really like math and my teacher told me that it would be good for, like, if we wanted to run a business one day, and …I’m getting into business. So I thought it’d be interesting to take.”

The Course: Students’ favorite parts

Interesting projects.

Some students enjoyed projects that focused on data that was interesting to them, such as a project that helped them understand Spotify algorithms or another that looked at NBA data.

“I really enjoyed the NBA player project. I thought that was pretty fun. I like looking at the data…I liked that …there was an end purpose in mind [and] it was almost a little bit of a competition.”

Additionally, some students talked about writing letters to their senators.

“It was very interesting writing the letters to the senators about all these little random topics. And then more recently, we started to get letters back from them. So that was really cool to get that letter. They actually took into account our little opinions on this.”

Coding and working with data.

Other students enjoyed working with data generally, learning to code, and learning about machine learning.

“I want to say [the best part of the class was] exploring machine learning for me. I really enjoy learning about stuff like that, especially because I want to be able to implement it and see how I can explore it and use it.”

Overall learning experience.

Students enjoyed the structure of the course and appreciated getting to work on projects and activities during class, rather than spending the whole period listening to a lecture; and they loved getting to learn alongside their classmates and work in groups.

“My favorite part was actually being able to do coding and all that with my friends and actually enjoying it with them.”

The Outcomes: Students’ perceptions of data science benefits

Learning about how to interpret, analyze, and present data.

Many students felt that their biggest take away from the class was learning about data, how to interpret and analyze it, and how to read graphs. They also learned about the role data plays in the real world.

“I remember we did this one lesson…about the CDC…[and] COVID…and I just remember [the teacher] saying that statistics have a real place in the world and how sometimes mistakes in them could cause mistakes to go on in the real world. I thought that was pretty interesting.”

Learning to be skeptical.

Students appreciated knowing how to recognize if data is being presented in a biased way. One student explained,

“I learned about having good graphs and when someone shows me information, like if they show me a 3D graph, I can say if it’s not very good or I can tell if they’re pushing an agenda or something.”

Learning to code.

Students also spoke about gaining basic coding skills.

“[Coding] was pretty difficult. Then once I knew how to do it, it was pretty fun.”

Learning to work together.

Additionally, some students mentioned getting better at collaboration and working in groups.

“[It was interesting] finding new things that we could learn together. You know, it’s better to learn with somebody else than just by yourself.”