Rationale
How do we know we are being told the whole story? How do we separate fact from fiction to make informed decisions for our health, communities, and country? Through numeracy and analysis, we can find a deeper story in information and numbers.
Since Spring of 2021, vaccinations have slowed from tens of thousands to an average of just under 5,000 new doses2 in Oklahoma. We are also sitting at the 11th lowest percentage of our population for fully vaccinated people at 39.4%, compared to the national average of 49%.3 Furthermore, we see increased cases as COVID-19's Delta Variant is making its way through neighboring states and rural parts of Oklahoma.
With the constant barrage of information and posts on our newsfeeds urging us to mask up (or not), to get vaccinated (or not), how do we make decisions that may affect the health of ourselves and our community?
Being data literate in the 21st century is critical; now more so than ever. Much of our daily lives revolve around data, whether we are interpreting it or it is being mined from us. Data-informed decisions show up in nearly every profession, whether that profession is in the STEM field or not. As an adult, outside of my classroom, I cannot tell you when I used formal algebraic equations, calculus, or trig. However, with certainty, I can tell you that I've interacted with some form of data every day this year; scrolling social media, listening to the news in the morning, making decisions for my health, planning instruction for my students, or showing up for my community as a registered voter at the polls.
In the age of so much digital noise, when opinions and agendas are being pushed everywhere you turn, it is a moral imperative for k12 education to give our students tools to sort out the fact from fiction.
This unit will aim to get middle school mathematics students thinking about the importance of data literacy and give them critical data problem-solving tools that they can use in the real world. In addition to this objective the unit will teach how essential mathematics is, and the role that numbers play in telling us the whole story instead of being misrepresented through data. In a two week span, this unit will build data literacy through the lens of public health, and by exploration of visual data representation. This unit will also attempt to tackle students' mindsets about how innovation happens through discussion and practice.
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