Integrating Technology and Narrative to Engage Young Adolescents With COVID Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered opportunities to immerse high needs 10–14-year-olds in real-life data that matter. We developed and tested an out-of-school program to increase youth understanding of data science through epidemiology. The 15–20-hour Data Detectives Clubs are structured around an adventure novel, The Case of the COVID Crisis, which introduces readers to epidemics across space and time. Chapters are accompanied by activities, discussion, and exploration of infection and vaccine data using CODAP, the Common Online Data Analysis Platform. To date, around 600 youth have experienced the program, focusing primarily on time-series data. Youth learned about noisy data, comparing graphs, and matching rates to cumulative numbers. These clubs demonstrate the feasibility of integrating data science with epidemiology outside of school.