All Times ET
Keywords: Data science education; liberal arts; project based learning
Although new to the liberal arts landscape, nothing could fit more perfectly within the liberal arts philosophy as data science. As an inherently interdisciplinary field, data science calls on students from all majors to work together to create knowledge and community. Thus, in light of the rising trend of data science programs in liberal arts institutions, we present frameworks for scaffolding experiential, project based learning assignments. In these projects, we promote the application of problem solving skills and the metacognition of data scientists to real world data problems. Considering mentoring as an act of empowerment, students are encouraged to take an active role in their education and communities to make data informed decisions. In this presentation, a range of examples will be given from an intermediate undergraduate level statistics course, a graduate level data visualization course, and participation in national data competitions.