Project Profile

Youth are avid creators and consumers of data-related claims through their participation on social media sites, in which they view, produce, and share content. They remix content, building off one another?s videos, gifs, and memes to represent and discuss topics they care about. However, participation on these same platforms can result in echo chambers, misinformation, and proliferation of perspectives that are detached from real-world experience. Thus, it is essential to support youth in developing the ability to critique data-related claims through engaging in investigations that consider context holistically, and with empathy for the people involved. This project explores the development of curricula and tools with middle school Math and English teachers that will leverage youth?s practices with digital media remixing to develop argumentation skills and the critical data literacies necessary to participate in today?s workforce and as informed citizens. Students will explore sociopolitical issues as they create data stories by synthesizing information across data sources and media. The project will develop curricular resources and tools to support students? abilities to investigate, critique, communicate and build knowledge with and around data. The project will engage 10 cross-domain teachers in 4 schools across the U.S. through summer workshops and year-round design collaborations; and up to 30 teachers and 1300 students across the United States through classroom implementations.

The project will develop tools and learning activities, including scaffolding and interaction design, to support integration of youth?s culturally relevant media practices, criticality in data investigations, and communication through the remixing of preexisting online material. The project will engage middle school math and English teachers in the co-design and implementation of the technology and curricular units as their learners use data and media to investigate and respond to their surrounding sociopolitical systems. A design-based research approach will inform multiple iterations of the technology and curriculum. Researchers will use mixed methods to analyze documentation, participant interviews, classroom observations, and implementation artifacts, to answer three research questions: (1) What remixing affordances can support students? critical data-reasoning practices?, (2) How can we support the implementation of critical data storytelling tools in diverse classroom contexts?, and (3) How do the remixing affordances of the critical data storytelling tools support students in developing and applying critical data-literacy practices? This project will contribute to an understanding of how technology can connect interdisciplinary learning goals across argumentation and communication to support critical data-reasoning practices.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.