Because Data Nuggets originated from a partnership of teachers and scientists, they address both the needs of scientists to share their research broadly while developing their communication skills, and of teachers who need resources that address education reform and teach science in an authentic way.
Data Nuggets are designed and developed by Elizabeth Schultheis and Melissa Kjelvik from Michigan State University. They have been under development since 2011 and originated through conversations between science teachers and graduate students during the NSF GK-12 project “New GK-12: Using the STEM Dimensions of Bioenergy Sustainability to Bring Leading-edge Graduate Research to K-12 Learning Settings”. This unique opportunity for collaboration between teachers and scientists led to the creation of teacher-inspired resources. Teachers shared that they were lacking educational resources that helped their students practice working with real, messy data like that collected during classroom inquiry-based projects. Graduate students in the sciences, not surprisingly, have lots of practice working with messy data and surprising results. Through this collaboration, Data Nuggets were created to bring real data from current and ongoing research into the classroom and take students through the process of science, from the inception of ideas to the analysis and interpretation of data.
Melissa Kjelvik and teacher Connie High working together to collect scientific data.
From 2013-2015, Data Nuggets were funded with seed grants from the NSF BEACON Center Study of Evolution in Action. These funds allowed us to greatly expand Data Nuggets as a resource, with activities now being developed in response to workshops held across the BEACON consortium. The funding has also provided opportunities to collaborate with science educators at Understanding Science (UCMP), National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), and Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) to further refine the template and to align Data Nuggets with current science standards and reform, making them easier to integrate into existing curriculum.
Data Nuggets are currently funded by a 4-year NSF DRK-12 grant, awarded to MSU and BSCS in 2015, to conduct a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating Data Nuggets into science curriculum. This research will help to determine whether these short activities can increase the mathematical skills of students and their ability to think scientifically and support claims using data.
Liz Schultheis working with teachers to collect herbivory data.
