The use of authentic messy data and case studies to improve data literacy skills in high school students

Abstract

The purpose of the is study was to examine if analyzing and interpreting authentic messy data had any effect on my students' data literacy skills. Additionally, the study examined if case studies were an effective means of communicating authentic data. For this project students were given case studies that presented data using various graphs. Students were then asked to describe, analyze and reach conclusions about the data in the case study. The non-treatment group received case studies with clean data, while the treatment group received case studies with messy data. The two groups were compared using pre- and post-assessment, surveys and student interviews. The results showed that the use of messy data did not impact student data literacy skills, but using messy may increase student ability to think of data critically. Using case studies allowed the students to incorporate information on the subject and data collection methods into their data-based conclusions.