As part of the CodeWV and West Virginia Department of Education partnership, new data science lessons have been developed to meet the goals outlined in the grant.
These lessons aim to expand data science offerings across grade levels and prepare students for future careers in data science and bioinformatics. Grounded in real-world relevance and academic rigor, the curriculum:
- Emphasize data literacy by introducing foundational skills such as recognizing, organizing, and interpreting data in ways that are developmentally appropriate. These lessons lay the groundwork for understanding how data shapes the world around us.
- Introduce data science principles in high school, including data visualization, statistical reasoning, and computational thinking. These lessons support deeper engagement with real-world datasets and help students build the skills necessary for advanced study and future career readiness.
- Incorporate transcriptomics datasets in high school-level lessons, developed in collaboration with research faculty. These lessons provide opportunities for students to explore real biological data, meeting the Year 1 goal of supporting teacher and student access to transcriptomics as a resource for meaningful data exploration.
Looking ahead, the program will culminate in a full high school data science course by Year 5, complete with transcriptomics-based research projects––marking a key milestone in fulfilling the grant’s long-term vision.