National Numeracy Network > Teaching Resources > Teaching With Data

Teaching With Data

This resource received an Accept or Accept with minor revisions rating from a Panel Peer Review process

These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:

  1. scientific accuracy and currency
  2. usability and
  3. pedagogical effectiveness
Reviewers rated the resources:
  1. Accept
  2. Accept with minor revisions
  3. Accept with major revisions, or
  4. Reject.
They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.


This page first made public: Dec 21, 2006

This material was originally created for Starting Point:Introductory Geology
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Created by Robert MacKay, Clark College
Columbia River Gorge
This is an elevation map of Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon highlighting the Coast Range, Willamette Valley, Cascade Rang and Columbia River Gorge. Data obtained from Topex site under Global Topography/Get an ASCII xyz file.



All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)







What is Teaching with data?

Any learning process that uses observations, defined in the most general sense, as a fundamental component to student learning.
What is Teaching With Data? (links to different types of instructional data)


Why use data in introductory courses?

Teaching students to use, analyze, and understand data to explore scientific questions is an essential component of basic science education.
Why Teach With Data? (reasons complied from Using Data in the Undergraduate Science Classroom workshop participants)


How to use data in an introductory course?

Design criteria for effective data based learning experiences, along with issues related to the use of data access, visualization, and analysis tools are important considerations for teaching with data.
How to Teach With Data (links to published data resources, tips for designing activities, and important concepts to consider)


Notes and references

The NSDL sponsored Using Data in the Classroom workshop is an excellent resource of related information. The results and recommendations of the workshop were used extensively throughout the development process of this Starting Point module.




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