The UCZ Data Jam supports educators in guiding students through authentic data exploration and creative sensemaking.
As an educator or advisor, you may choose on of the following pathways:
- Enter your students in the regional UCZ Data Jam Competition, or
- Use the UCZ Data Jam as a self-contained project within your own classroom.
Whichever path you choose, the resources below are designed to support you as you guide students through their data exploration journey.
Students may choose a wide range of creative approaches for communicating their findings, and we aim to support both educators and students throughout the Data Jam experience.
To help you get started, we’ve gathered the following advisor resources:
- Data Jam Essentials—An overview of the Data Jam and complete contest information.
- Advisor-only Google Drive Folder—Sample graphs for most of the datasets. Email hooda@caryinstitute.org to receive access.
- Advice from Veteran Data Jam Coaches—Tips and strategies from experienced advisors.We asked veteran Data Jam coaches to share their advice.
- Advisor Webinar Series—A three-part series designed to support Data Jam planning, instructions, and student products. We will be hosting a three-part webinar series designed to support you and your students as they embark on their Data Jam journey. If you are unable to attend a live webinar, recorded sessions will be linked above. You may also find archived webinars from our sister program, the Hudson Data Jam, useful.
- Webinar #1 Where Does a Data Jam Fit? Integrating an Urban Critical Zone Data Jam into Your Existing Curriculum
- Webinar #2 Helping Students Make Sense of Messy Data: Instructional Moves for Supporting Student Data
- Webinar #3 Helping Students Share Their Science: Scaffolding Creative Products and Scientific Communication
Additional resources
The resources below may help support students as they become familiar with the Data Jam process, explore their datasets, and represent their data visually.
Data support
- Getting to Know your Dataset—A student-facing worksheet that guides students from activating prior knowledge to interpreting metadata, to graphing and analyzing their data.
- Graph Choice Chart—A teacher-facing resource from the November 2014 issue of The Science Teacher that includes a chart to help students select the most appropriate graph type for their particular scientific question.
- Student Planning Sheet—A planning tool designed to help classes break the Data Jam into manageable steps with concrete deadlines.
- Source Credibility Guide—An easy-to-read infographic designed to help students evaluate external sources and determine whether they are appropriate to use in the Data Jam report (and other academic writing).
- UCZ Data Lessons—A set of four structured, student-facing lessons designed to support students’ understanding of the Urban Critical Zone and to build data analysis and sensemaking skills.
- The Introduction to the Critical Zone lesson introduces the Critical Zone and urban influences and is recommended as a starting point prior to beginning a Data Jam.
- These three lessons are built around datasets that are also available for the UCZ Data Jam and are intended to support students in developing data analysis skills.
- Chloride in the Pennypack (uses "Anions in the Pennypack" dataset)
- Greenhouse Gases in Dead Run
- Stream Chemistry Across the Fall Zone
- Because the dataset-specific lessons guide students toward a particular interpretation of the data, we recommend that students do not complete a Data Lesson that uses the same dataset they are investigating for their Data Jam project.
- Guided-Inquiry Graphing Puzzles—An activity from our sister program, the Hudson Data Jam, that gives students practice interpreting unusual Hudson River phenomenon using data from the HRECOS ecological monitoring system. These puzzles were developed and generously shared by Steve Stanne, Education Coordinator of the Hudson River Estuary Program.
Artistic support
As with any online resource, advisors are encouraged to review materials before sharing them with students.
Looking for inspiration for creative data communication? The following examples highlight ways artists and designers incorporate data into storytelling.
- Jill Pelto—An artist whose work focuses on climate change through colored-pencil illustrations. Explore the gallery on her website to see how she embeds data into her artwork.
- Dear Data —Dear Data is a year-long, analog data drawing project by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, two award-winning information designers living on different sides of the Atlantic.
Creative Apps & Tools
- Krita—A free, open-source application for digital drawing and illustration.
- Procreate—A paid-for app for digital painting, drawing, and animation.
- Canva—Especially useful for infographics and other visual communication.
YouTube Video Resources
- Science Filmmaking: Tips & Tricks—Includes a helpful “How to Make Stop Motion Videos” series.
- Proko—Tutorials focused on developing sketching skills.
- Art Assignment—Engaging episodes that explore art history that can spark creativity!
- Crash Course—A strong model for how scientific communication can be engaging and informative.
If you have any questions about the Data Jam, individual datasets, or available resources, please don't hesitate to reach out to Angie at hooda@caryinstitute.org.
Finally, if you are using a resource that isn't listed here, we’d love to hear about it. Please share it with Angie (see email, above). We welcome your contributions to continue to strengthen the Data Jam community!