Data Use by Middle and Secondary Students in the Digital Age: A Status Report and Future Prospects

What it means to work with data has changed significantly since the preparation and publication of America’s Lab Report(Singer, Hilton, & Schweingruber, 2006)in ways that are impacting students, educators, and the very practice of science. This change is expressing itself most obviously in the abundance of data that can be collected and accessed by students and teachers. There are also notable changes in the types of data (e.g., GPS data, network data, qualitative/verbal data) that are now readily available, and the purposes for which data are collected and analyzed. These shifts have both generated enthusiasm and raised a number of questions for K-12 science educators as new science standards are being adopted across the United States. This commissioned paper reviews the current state of data use in middle and secondary educational settings given the push toward adoption of Next Generation Science Standards and the changes that have taken place in technology infrastructure and research since the publication of America\u27s Lab Report (2006). We identify emerging types of data and discuss what current literature suggests about their effective use in science investigations. Additionally, we consider how the emergence of \u27data science\u27 is reflected in the current research and suggest future research directions for the field