Data Science in school
Learning to analyse data
Data science – an amalgam of statistics and computer science – generates knowledge from data and has been called one of the biggest issues for the future of science, business and society. Why? Because statistical methods alone are no longer powerful enough to analyze the vast quantities of minimally structured data available today. They need to be augmented by computer science methods similar to those being currently developed by artificial intelligence (AI) researchers.
Data science holds tremendous potential as a profession as many industries grapple with the challenge of big data. Unfortunately, it is hardly addressed at all in German schools. Deutsche Telekom Stiftung wants to change that – with help from Paderborn University and the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM).
Mathematics and computer science education researchers at Paderborn University are working with two pilot schools in Paderborn to jointly develop a project class for upperclassmen in college-preparatory high schools. The class teaches the fundamentals of statistics and computer science as well as current artificial intelligence methods. The project is based on an international expert workshop that documented the current state of research in November 2017.
