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Did you know that require at least some data science skills? And in the future, these skills are projected to be in even higher demand. Whether or not your child’s school is actively teaching data literacy, data science, or data science skills, you can help your child by introducing these important concepts at home. These data science activities are basically fun learning games. Check them out with your child. You may be surprised how quickly your child catches on — or even starts coding!

5 data science activities for kids

1. Be the DJ!

   Algo-Rhythm is an app game that helps kids learn about music and data science while pretending to be the DJ at a party. As the DJ, kids use data to choose the right music for the party’s vibe. The app has a collection of songs — from pop hits like Dua Lipa’s Levitating to oldies like Dancing Queen by ABBA — for kids to choose from. Each song has three data values: danceability, tempo, and energy. DJs are asked to build playlists to meet certain metrics. A scorebar shows how the dancers feel about each song. When the DJ keeps the crowd dancing — while also managing song requests on the fly — they move on to the next level.

   Grades: K-5
   Best for: Kids who love music
   Cost: Free
   Links:

2. Tuva Jr.

   Set your child free on this online learning activities site where they can play with data, create plot graphs and pie charts, and play detective to answer questions. This library of activities, data stories, and datasets caters to young math and science learners in second grade through fifth grade. So your 8-year-old can solve word problems with animal data, your 9-year-old can reason with shapes, and your 11-year-old can explore patterns of daylight. The goal? To build children’s confidence and reduce math anxiety by providing a fun, playful learning environment.

   Grades: 2-5
   Best for: Kids who love science, animals, and the environment
   Cost: Free
   Link:

3. Tableau

   Yes, Tableau is a software company you typically hear about from grown-up data scientists at work. But they offer a host of free learning resources, too, and as they say on their blog: you don’t need to be an adult to geek out about data. To pique your child’s interest in data, you need two things:

   • Data that appeals to your child’s interests
   • Questions that data can solve

   Start with the blog post that offers three intro to data science activities featuring tic tac toe, skittles, and dogs that you can do with your children ages 5 and up. Then venture into their Data Kids activities section with eight more data-based activities based on movie characters, gardening, coloring, and more.

   Grades: K-8
   Best for: Kids who would prefer to use a pen and pencil to start
   Cost: Free
   Links:

4. Code Monkey

   Children ages 5 to 14 years old can learn modern coding skills, including block-coding, text-coding, CoffeeScript, and Python all while playing engaging animated games. Newbies start learning sequencing and loops by learning step-by-step how to direct a monkey left, right, up, and diagonal to find bananas and treasure chests. As they progress, children learn how to create simple loops of behavior to simplify their code — and on and on from there.

   Grades: K-8
   Best for: Kids who like video games
   Cost: Home plans start at $7/month for one child
   Link:

5. Education.com

   These fun, interactive games for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade give kids the experience of playing, sorting, graphing, and thinking critically about the data. For example, your third grader can play the Bar Graphing with Eggs game. First, they help Farmer Brown catch the eggs that the hens are quickly laying. Then they sort the eggs. Finally, they create a bar graph to chart the number of each type of eggs. It’s fun, it’s math, and it’s collecting and working with data.

   Grades: PreK-6
   Best for: Kids who like online learning
   Cost: Free to start, then $8/month
   Link: