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Teaching Data and Information to 5- to 11-year-olds

Increase your knowledge of data and information, and how you can teach young children about this topic.

742 enrolled on this course

A image representing aspects of the course, including a table of numbers, charts, runners wearing smartwatches, a representation of a branching database, and a robot pointing to a cat which is labelled "Cat"

  • Duration

    3 weeks

  • Weekly study

    2 hours
Overview
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Help learners understand how to handle and use data to answer questions

Data and information can influence many of our daily activities, often without us even being aware of it. It’s important for young people to understand how individuals and organisations collect and use data about them. They should also learn how they can collect and manage data themselves.

On this three-week course, you’ll find out how you can develop young learners’ knowledge of data and information, and how they can use data to help answer questions about the world.

You’ll investigate the different stages of data handling and see how you can introduce key concepts and skills in an age-appropriate manner.

Explore how young people work with data across the curriculum

You’ll think about the many reasons why we collect data and how data is relevant to different subjects across the curriculum. You’ll also learn how to encourage young people to start asking questions that they can answer using data.

At the end of the first week, you’ll learn about a model for the entire data handling process, which you’ll build on throughout the course.

Support learners to structure and analyse data

You’ll think about how giving structure to data makes it more useful. You’ll also learn how to support young people to use more complicated data structures as they develop their understanding.

Learn how to guide young people to analyse data and present their findings

You’ll explore how you and your learners can use the collected data to come to conclusions and how best to present findings to different audiences.

Bring your skills together with the experts at the Raspberry Pi Foundation

You’ll finish the course by working through an entire data handling project, using skills from all of the different stages.

You’ll then learn how to apply the knowledge and skills you have gained in your own setting.

Download video: standard or HD

Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds What’s the difference between information and data? What is a database? And why do organisations collect data about you? This free course will help you develop your understanding of data and information, and become more confident in teaching these concepts to children aged 5 to 11. You’ll learn about gathering data and organising it in a database. You’ll analyse data and present it in a visual way, and you’ll reflect on teaching activities that encourage young children to ask questions about data. This three week course also contains peer led discussions, trainer interaction, and practical activities to help embed your new knowledge.

Skip to 0 minutes and 44 seconds So whether you’re a teacher with students of your own, or simply curious about databases, this course will help you to start teaching data and information to 5 to 11 year olds. Sign up now at rpf.io/primarydata.

What topics will you cover?

  • What are data & information?
  • Questioning
  • Presenting data
  • Implementing data
  • Collecting data
  • Analysing data

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explain the data handling process to learners, from coming up with a question to presenting your findings
  • Identify how learners can collect and structure data in different situations
  • Compare manual and automatic methods of collecting data
  • Model how learners can evaluate data to come to a conclusion
  • Demonstrate how learners can report on their findings in an appropriate way for their audience
  • Develop a sequence of learning for an aspect of data handling

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for educators who work with learners aged 5 to 11 years old.

Who will you learn with?

Catherine Elliott

SEND lead for the Sheffield eLearning Service (http://sheffieldclc.net/), co-chair of the CAS Include working party and leader of the Sheffield/South Yorks Secondary and SEND Virtual CAS Communities.

Isabella Lieghio

Primary computing specialist teacher, working with schools and universities to support computing curriculum development and online safety. Barefoot and NCCE content writer, CAS Master teacher and ADE.

Who developed the course?

Raspberry Pi Foundation

The Raspberry Pi Foundation works to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world, so they are capable of understanding and shaping our increasingly digital world.

National Centre for Computing Education

This course is part of the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). Funded by the Department for Education and partners, we aim to change the way computing is taught in schools across England, and enable more young people to benefit from studying this important subject.

If you are a teacher in England you can get free upgraded access to this course, and use it towards NCCE certification. To do this, you must join the course through the Teach Computing website

Learning on FutureLearn

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  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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