Project Overview
In the Make Decisions with Data project, students develop fundamental skills needed to use technology in support of decision making, data analysis, and communication. Students use technology tools and resources to help them make more informed decisions by collecting and analyzing data. You can help students develop an enduring understanding of how to consider different points of view with reason and fairness. In this project, you provide students with opportunities to become more effective researchers, decision makers, and presenters by learning to analyze and visualize data. As students become more proficient, they begin to use data to improve decision making in all aspects of their lives.

Project Questions

• How can critical thinking skills help students make better decisions about complex topics?
• How can collecting opinion data through surveys before making a decision be helpful?
• How do analyzing and visualizing data help students make decisions?
• How can students use analysis and visualizations of data to explain decisions?

Decision Making >
Are your students prepared to make important decisions about their futures? In this module, you promote fundamental thinking skills that can help students make better decisions throughout their lives. Make sure students understand that critical thinkers are effective decision makers because they consider different points of view with reason and fairness. With your facilitation, students understand how surveys collect data on people and their opinions, and how survey data can inform many important decisions about complex topics. Then, students choose and research important decisions on which to create their own surveys. 

Data Collection >
What can students do when they need more information to make a decision? In this module, students learn how to collect opinion data by administering surveys. You guide students to help them understand that opinions are often useful data because important decisions have significant effects on people. You can help students write survey questions and compile questionnaires to collect data from other students. Make sure students understand how database applications store and manage data for quick and easy retrieval. After students collect their data, they plan databases to store and manage their survey data. 

Data Analysis >
Do your students know how to use data to inform decision making? In this module, you facilitate an exploration of database applications as an effective technology tool to store and manage data, and spreadsheet applications as a tool for analyzing and visualizing data. Students should understand how visual representations of data, such as charts and graphs, can help them evaluate possibilities and make choices. You help students learn how to create forms and queries to enter and retrieve survey data, and use formulas and functions and create charts and graphs to analyze their data. Students also format their data and visualizations before sharing their analysis with peers.

Expository Presentation >
Do your students feel a sense of accomplishment when they share their work with others? In this module, students share their successful decision making with a live audience by creating, preparing, and delivering expository presentations. You facilitate as student reflect on how they defined decisions, gathered information, developed alternatives, evaluated possibilities, and made choices. You can help students understand how to use the expository style of writing to explain their decisions by conveying the most important ideas and concepts in few words. Finally, students use technology tools to create and deliver presentations that are entertaining as well as interesting and informative.