Broadening Participation: The Data Science Academy for K-12.

The Data Science Academy (DSA) is an extra-curricular program for 7-12th graders that has evolved over the last four years with valuable lessons learned along the way. DSA was created in part because the K-12 curriculum is already packed, so deploying this informal learning environment and outreach program was one way to meet the challenge of the CS4ALL initiative and broaden participation in computing. DSA serves multiple purposes in that regard: it teaches teachers, it gives undergraduates mentoring experience, and it provides a platform for educational research and development. Currently, the DSA comprises five teaching modules, which have been repackaged and delivered as quarter or semester long weekend sessions, or shorter intensive summer programs. That is to say, the DSA accommodates flexible formats, including virtual or in-person ones and soon asynchronous options as well. The DSA provides an opportunity to develop and test lesson modules, including those derived from research projects in partnership with DS-PATH participants (an NSF project to create DS Pathways). Ultimately, the goal is to apply our experience with the DSA in order to expand the K-12 curriculum with new Data Science courses (grades 9-12), modules and pallets (grades 6-8), which is the next phase of our project.