Bop or Flop?: Integrating Music and Data Science in an Elementary Classroom

Abstract

The importance of data literacies and the shortage of research surrounding data science in elementary schools motivated this research-practice partnership (RPP) between researchers and teachers from a STEM elementary school. We used a narrative case study methodology to describe the instructional practices of one music teacher who co-designed a data science curricular unit during a summer professional development program and implemented it in her 5th-grade music classroom. Data collected for this study include in-person and video observations, reflective journals, artifacts, and interviews. Findings suggest that this teacher integrated data science literacies into her classroom by supporting multiple avenues for data storytelling and relying on learners’ everyday discourse and experiences. Our study details a practical example of implementing data science with non-STEM domains in elementary classrooms.

Keywords:

• Data science
• data storytelling
• elementary education
• research-practice partnerships
• STEM
• teacher professional development

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation.