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

Help children understand how to handle and use data to answer questions

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

On this three-week course, you’ll explore how you can build up 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 the 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 they are relevant to different subjects across the curriculum. You’ll also learn how to encourage children 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 that you’ll build upon through the rest of the course.

Understand data structures

You’ll think about how giving data structure makes it more useful, and how you can support young learners to use more complicated data structures as they develop their understanding.

Learn how to analyse data and present your findings

You’ll explore how you and your learners will use the data that you collect to come to conclusions – and how best to present your 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.

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