Buffum, P. S., Martinez-Arocho, A. G., Frankosky, M. H., Rodriguez, F. J., Wiebe, E. N., & Boyer, K. E. (2014, March). CS principles goes to middle school: learning how to teach Big Data. In Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education (pp. 151-156). ACM.

Summary

Type: Empirical

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to observe the students' success at completing the Big Data activity prototype. Additionally, researchers investigated the retetention and continued interest in the Big Data activities.

Findings: 1. The mean score of item "This activity was fun" was 2.8 out of 5 with SD=1.3. 2. Students had a limited understanding of what Big Data mean 3. Dialogue discussed in focus groups makes it clear that data discussions to be socially relevant 4. Post survey responses indicate that students rated the activities as fun (M=2.1, SD=0.8) 5. Feedback about the prototype was positive.

Recommendations:

Methodology

Sample Size: 15

Participant Type: 6th and 7th grade students

Notes: 6 Caucasian, 4 African-American, 1 Latino, 1 Native American, 1 Indian, 1 Middle Eastern and 1 Multiracial. Thirteen of the fifteen students were female.