Data Education in Schools is a UK and Scottish Government funded project to teach data literacy and data citizenship skills to learners ages 3-18 years old in the Edinburgh and surrounding area.  It is an eight year project that aims to reach all learners within the six local authorities of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

We are part of the Data Driven Innovation Skills Gateway, a wider programme that develops data-driven innovation within the region. Data Education in Schools works with Edinburgh, Midlothian, East Lothian, West Lothian, Fife and Borders local authorities, as well as the local further education colleges, Edinburgh Napier and Heriot Watt universities and local employers to offer opportunities to learners at all stages over the 8 year period of the project. You can find out more about the Data Driven Innovation Skills Gateway and the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal at About the DDI Skills Gateway – Data Education in Schools.

Our vision is to be a world-leading data education centre supporting young people across the region to develop the confidence, competence and ambition to use data to benefit themselves and their communities.

We offer high quality, evidence-based education about data to all young people regardless of gender, location or socio-economic background.

Our aims

  • Support young people to be aware of their data rights and responsibilities
  • Support young people to use and interpret data critically and ethically to inform decision-making
  • Offer sustainable skills progression to the teaching profession based on research-informed pedagogy
  • Ensure that the values of ‘data for good’ underpin curriculum development and uses real-world data sets and problems, scenarios
  • Ensure that our approach is research-led and evidence-based
  • Support the integration of schools, university, community and industry in partnership

Our core activities

The project also offers support, resources and guidance for those seeking to obtain the  NPA Data Science.

We are proud to have received recognition for both our collaborative and individual work throughout the years. Find out more about our Awards.

Our Research

Our approach is informed by research and we are interested to find out how we can teach data literacy more effectively, and how to make our events and materials more interesting and fun. For this reason we have usually got a research project running alongside the Data Education in Schools activities.

The research team members are Judy Robertson and Serdar Abaci.

Past research team members include Holly Linklater and Fiona McNeill.

We also work with the Data Education in Schools team and our colleagues in Digital Skills Education. 

Below are some examples of our current research projects.

Teachers’ experiences of teaching data literacy 

We want to find out how teachers get on with teaching data literacy, and how it fits in with your teaching approaches in other areas of the curriculum. If you’re a teacher who has signed up for our Data Literacy for Primary Teachers course or your school is part of the Internet of Things in Schools project, we may invite you to take part in this research. It is likely to involve taking part in interviews (around 30 minutes) or focus groups (around 60 minutes). We might also invite you to write a blog post or share slides which you have used in a presentation about your data literacy classroom work with us. Internet of Things in Schools teachers will also be invited to complete a survey about the work they do with their classes on the project. 

Live Lessons 

We want to find out what learners and teachers think of our Live Lessons series: Data Selfies, Defend the Rhino with Data Science, Plug in the Numbers and Unmasking Data Disasters. We work on this project with our colleagues at Digital Skills Education (Craig Steel and Daniel Devine). Learners – if you take part in one of these lessons, Craig and Daniel will ask you if you want to complete an online survey at the end. If you do, and you and your parents have filled in the Data Education in School permission form, Daniel will send us your answers afterwards. We will use your answers to help us design fun lessons in the future. Teachers – if you have signed up for your class to take part in one of these lessons, we may get in touch to ask you to complete a survey or take part in an interview. This helps us to make sure that the lessons are pitched in the right way for the age group, and cover interesting aspects of the curriculum. We might also ask for ideas for new topics, or your general thoughts about teaching data literacy. 

Escape Rooms 

Our colleague Kate Farrell designed Escape Rooms lessons for teaching data literacy. We occasionally deliver these lessons live and evaluate them to find out what learners and teachers think of them. 

How to take part

By signing up to our professional learning offer and events, teachers and learners can take part in our research projects. If interested and/or in need of further information, please email Judy.Robertson@ed.ac.uk. In the forms below, you will find the details of how we will use your information to inform our research.

Research information sheets and consent forms for teachers

Research information sheets and consent forms for parents/carers and learners