This module has been developed from the Battelle Data Analysis Module Template and adapted for Metro Early College High School students in Learning Centers (Bodies [biomedical], Digital [music], Design [engineering], and Growth [agriculture]). These are advanced students and mostly juniors. Students will have the freedom in choice of topics and research questions within the content of their Learning Center (i.e., biomedical, music, engineering, agriculture). This is the first unit of the year for the students in the Scientific Writing and Research Course. Students may either pick a topic or be assigned a topic by the teacher. In this module, students have the opportunity to formulate their own research questions based on their interests.
Scientific Writing and Research is a course that aims to help students succeed as future leaders in STEM fields through effective literacy skills. This LDC module, therefore, aims to increase students' abilities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking within STEM fields. Data analysis and the ability to read with and work with data are paramount in each of the four fields available for students entering learning centers. The summative assessment for this module takes the shape of a data analysis report and presentation, so the entire unit is addressed within this single module.
Data (evidence) analysis and interpretation are central to the basic scientific process of asking questions, carrying out testing, gathering data, analyzing data, and reporting on that analysis. Often, we ask students to carry out meaningful scientific studies, not realizing that they are not sufficiently experienced with data analysis. The Battelle Data Analysis Module Template isolates the data selection, analysis, and reporting process in order to further develop data fluency in science students. This data analysis template asks students to utilize "secondary data"—data sets that already exist and were gathered by someone else. Using pre-existing data temporarily removes the "experimentation" stage of the scientific process in order to focus student learning on how to choose data that can answer a scientific question and how to interpret and present that data.
The Battelle Data Analysis Template is designed to be the first of a three-part Battelle LDC Science Collection: Data Analysis, Controlled Experimentation, and Design. The series represents a continuum of skills that build upon each other. It is advisable that students be relatively fluent in experimentation prior to completing the design module—and relatively fluent in data analysis before completing a Battelle Controlled Experiment Module. For this module, the Battelle Data Analysis Template was modified specifically for an ELA Scientific Writing course in a STEM school.
We thank Jared Schuetter (Statistician at Battelle) for his assistance in sharing his work processes and providing real world examples to include in this module.
