The Role of Data Stories in Interdisciplinary Project-Based Learning

• In Event: Developing Capacity Through Projects, Bootcamps, and Community-Based Experiential Learning

Abstract

In our increasingly data-saturated world, fostering students developing data acumen and agency is increasingly important. Data storytelling within the context of interdisciplinary project-based learning is a promising approach. We enquire into the research questions (1) how do students—with teachers’ support— tell stories with data?, and (2) how can data storytelling contribute to students’ data agency and identity? Case study research in two classrooms integrating English language arts, social studies, and data revealed students use four storytelling modes enabling them to incorporate their intersectional identities, manifest agency, and integrate narrative and logico-scientific discourses. These modes are incorporating data into extant narratives, telling a story about oneself working with data; animating a data representation; and narrating oneself into a data-represented world.

Authors

• Joseph L. Polman, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Trang C. Tran, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Katherine M. Miller, Concord Consortium

• Chad Dorsey, Concord Consortium