Workshop Report: Data Detectives
From 21st-25th June, 2021, members of the department were excited to host 15 Year 12 students for a virtual workshop called Data Detectives. The workshop was free to attend and open to Year 12/S5 students from non-selective UK state schools who were studying mathematics or similar at A level.
Armed with a laptop, instead of a deerstalker and magnifying glass, the aim was for students to spend the week exploring a data set, learning new data analysis skills along the way and presenting their findings to the rest of the students on the final day.
Numbers game
Groups were given a choice of two datasets. One dataset was a Google Play set of Android mobile phone apps, each with number of downloads, star rating, price, as well as various characteristics about each app such as title and category. The other was a dataset on the World Happiness Index which related “happiness index” with various characteristics of each country such as GDP, life expectancy and corruption.
To enable the students to carry out meaningful data exploration, we taught them the basics of using the R language with RStudio Cloud, with no prior experience assumed.
Each day was structured with a mix of virtual lessons/demonstrations, group work and information sessions. The students were split into teams of four or five to apply their newly acquired skills by working collaboratively, ultimately producing a presentation at the end of the week. Each team was supported throughout by enthusiastic and dedicated current UCL undergraduate student ambassadors from whom they could seek advice.
Building relationships
Most of the students didn’t know each other before the workshop but were soon working well together on their projects. They developed their skills in how to explore data, how to dig down into the data by summarising, rearranging, tabulating and plotting, and how to communicate what they found.
On the final day, the teams gave presentations to the rest of the group and then voted on their favourite. Prizes of £100 book vouchers (hopefully to be spent on data analysis books!) were awarded for the best presentations. Clear progress had been made and the quality of the final presentations was excellent.
Data Detectives was led by Alex Watson and developed and delivered by Alex, Elinor Jones, Sam Livingstone, Nathan Green and Ioanna Manolopoulou.