Everything You Wanted to Know about Data Day

You may have attended NCS’s annual 5th grade Data Day for years, but do you really know what it’s all about? We asked Lower School Science Teacher Bridget Bean to explain.

How did Data Day originate?
Data Day was the brainchild of my former colleague, Dr. Bruce Jones, the 6th grade science teacher at The Blake Schools in Minnesota; we taught together in the 1980s. With Bruce’s permission, I brought Data Day to NCS during my first year here (2005-06), and adapted and expanded it for the 5th grade. Data Day 2015 was 10th anniversary of Data Day at NCS.

Why is Data Day a 5th-grade activity?
At NCS we introduce the scientific method to the girls in 4th grade, laying the groundwork of what it is, what the steps mean, and how each step works. After some review and a little additional practice with the more challenging steps of the scientific method, by the middle of 5th grade, the girls are developmentally ready to learn through trial and error, formative drafts, more trial and error, redrafts, and the importance of risk-taking to yield a science experiment born of their own ideas and hard work.

Data Day also offers something for everyone. Be it organizing data, speaking with people, research, art, math, writing, thinking logically in or out of the box, or performing, Data Day provides a place for each child’s strengths to shine through contributions to her team that no other team member can make.

What better way to teach what science is all about than by combining 5th-grade enthusiasm, curiosity, and creativity with a challenging problem-solving process in which the girls are fully invested? The projects are their own creations, they do it themselves, and are in charge of everything (including their parents as test subjects), and they are the world experts on their experiments!

What instructions do you give the girls?
The work is always done in teams of three or four. In real life, most science is done in teams. The girls must come up with an experiment that can be conducted safely on humans in under two minutes. No nuts or animals are allowed, nor are surveys.

Along the way, I have eliminated simple taste tests (too easy) and ice cream projects. While there are still taste tests, they are not simple ones. The girls have either actually run the tests with me in advance to confirm there is an interesting and viable test, or there is a more complicated variable involved than the simple taste test.

A team may use a decoy question if it is necessary to elicit unaffected behavior from the test subjects. For instance, if a team would like to find out how many times people use word fillers when speaking, they must have a decoy or the test subject will likely change her/his behavior for the test. Of the 14 Data Day 2015 projects, eight used a decoy question. In addition, every team member must be 100% excited about the investigative question selected or the team has to go back to the drawing board. The experiments must be controlled and have only one experimental variable.

This is a very significant and thought-provoking challenge for every team. Each team must have at least 50 test subjects. This year the investigations ranged from having 70-140+ test subjects which, by the way, yielded hundreds of data sets to be analyzed.

What’s the timeline?
We start reviewing the scientific method in late November/early December. and students begin their individual brainstorming in December. Teams begin their work the day we return from winter break. The Data Day event takes place in March before spring break. The remaining three weeks, or so, are spent analyzing data, writing conclusions, and presenting the results. All their work is completed in the Data Day Log Book which I write each year. The vast majority of the work is completed here at school with the team and under my watch.

Have you always invited parents to be the “subjects”?
Yes, parents, family, and friends have always been invited to participate as test subjects. Originally, test subject invitees included the LS students, faculty/staff, the NSC science department, the NCS administration, and family and friends of the 5th graders. Each year since, we have expanded the invitation to include each Data Day alum grade level and the whole NCS faculty/staff. Alumnae grades have included grades 6-12 for a couple of years now. We started inviting the STA 5th grade (Form B) last year.

What do the students do with the results of their experiments?
After the Data Day event, Mathematics Teacher Michelle Park and I teach SMATH—integrated science and math classes—together for the analysis portion of the projects. Concurrent with Data Day, Michelle teaches the girls analytical tools such as mode, median, mean, percent, and a variety of graphs. Subsequently, in SMATH the girls determine what analytical math tools they have learned will be appropriate for their data sets and then use those tools to organize and analyze the data sets.

After the team analysis is complete, including sources of error, the focus shifts to individual work. Working solo, each student will draw her own conclusion, determine if her hypothesis was supported or not, and pose some “what next?” questions, new questions and ideas she thinks would be interesting to explore based on the investigation she has just completed.
The last step of the project is for the team to report to their findings to their class and, if time allows, we “publish” the results for the NCS community.

What do you hope students learn/take away from Data Day?
A thorough understanding and a working knowledge of the scientific method, tremendous growth in their individual teamwork skills, great confidence in their own abilities in both of the preceding, an exciting science experience of which they are very proud because it would never have happened without them!
 
Click here to see a photo gallery of Data Day 2015!
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    • 5th grade STA students came as 'test subjects."

    • Clipboards at the ready for results!

    • An unusual experiment involving the poetry of Langston Hughes.

    • If music was part of an experiment, some students sent it from their smartphones.

    • A test involving optical illusions.

    • This year's Data Day filled Procter Gym with ready subjects!