Thank you to the fantastic crowd at Cyberlearning 2017 who attended our Data Science Education Meetup at Mussel Bar and Grill on Tuesday night. The Meetup provided an opportunity for members of the Cyberlearning community to discuss innovative ways that we could implement data science education into research and curriculum development, to address NSF’s 10 Big Ideas for Future Investments strand in data science [PDF], and to enjoy some great food!

There were several strands of activity toward data science education at Cyberlearning 2017, and the Meetup provided an opportunity for us to share and reflect on the following:

• A roundtable session on Teaching Data Science, in which our own William Finzer facilitated a discussion on our Data Science Education Technology conference in Berkeley in February.
• Hearing about some of the challenges researchers face in implementing curriculum at the middle school and high school level, as well as some of the Cyberlearning projects (such as Data Science Games, CODAP, Impact Studio, Learning and Youth, and STEM Literacy Through Infographics), which are hoping to address these challenges.
• Participating in the Data Science Education for 21st Century Learning CL17 Working Sessions Strand. It was especially great to work with Sayamindu Dasgupta and Jesse Bemley to identify the important aspects necessary to move data science education forward.
• Identifying data science as part of computational thinking, as put forward by NSF Program Officer Arlene M. de Strulle on Wednesday morning.

Our Meetup was packed (we had to move to a larger set of tables, as a matter of fact!), and the evening was full of lively discussion about the impact and need for data science education. We thank everyone who attended and are especially grateful to our community for bringing in so much passion and energy for data science education.

Please check out our future Data Science Education Meetup dates and locations at concord.org/meetup. Or join us online through a series of monthly Data Science Education Webinars, starting in May. We have a great lineup of speakers, including Cliff Konold, Amelia McNamara, and Rob Gould. We’ll post dates and additional information at concord.org/meetup.

As always, please leave a comment or suggestion for future Meetups, community-building activities, or future innovations in data science education you’d like to see. We love hearing from you.