Data science is a lot lately. While other countries are teaching data science skills starting in elementary school, U.S. schools are slowly introducing data science electives in high school. Meanwhile, data from the shows that careers in data science are booming with a current median wage of $108,020 and projected growth of 36 percent from 2023 to 2033. Universities are doing more to meet the demand, offering majors in data science that may appeal to your teen. According to the promoting the major: 鈥淒ata science has the potential to improve the way we live and work… with a data science career, you can be part of this transformation.鈥�
Do you think your child may be interested in data science — either as a career path or as a skill set to increase their employability? Here are six smart ways for your teen to do some independent learning to see if this may be a career path or skill set they would like to pursue. What鈥檚 more, each of these independent learning opportunities will look great on a college application and resum茅.
6 ways for teens to learn data science
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This series of 16 YouTube video classes introduces different aspects of data science and data literacy in an engaging, low-stakes way. Host Jessica Pucci, Associate Dean and Professor of Digital Analytics and Engagement at Arizona State University鈥檚 Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, reminds students to be skeptical of their information sources. Each video is about 10 minutes long, so students can dive in and learn it all in about three hours or they can learn one video at a time — going in order or jumping around to watch episodes about data in sports or social media, then circling back to learn about collecting and visualizing data. Because the courses are short and engaging, students can fly through these videos in whatever order they see fit.
Cost: Free
Time commitment: 10 minutes at a time, 3 hours total
Best for: Teens who are interested in data in the news and the world around them -
Teens can sample a few individual courses — each is an asynchronous class about 15 to 30 minutes long — to see if they like what鈥檚 being offered. Each course has a short overview as well as user ratings and reviews in the various languages in which these courses are available. Teens can start with courses highlighting professionals in the field, for example, where they can learn about what that person does and how they got there — and see student reviews of the class like, 鈥淚nspirational story!鈥� These courses offer professional resources, too. If teens are so inclined, there鈥檚 a seven-hour Data Fundamentals course that grants a college application or resum茅-boosting credential upon completion.
Cost: Free
Time commitment: 15-30 minutes for individual classes; 7 hours for a credential
Best for: Teens who want to explore data science career options -
Trailhead is the free learning library offered by software giant Salesforce. The first step on this learning journey is Data Analyst. Overall, the course takes two hours and 35 minutes to complete, but each course is broken into modules, which, in turn, have multiple five-minute segments. For example, the Data Literacy Basics module has three five-minute segments. For teens who love a detailed outline and lots of to-do鈥檚 to check off their list, this may be just the thing. For other teens, this breakdown may seem endless and overwhelming.
Cost: Free
Time commitment: Less than 3 hours (to start)
Best for: Teens who love a long, detailed outline -
DataClassroom offers curated raw datasets along with full lesson plans that are appropriate for kids in sixth grade through college. The twist is that these data sets are set up to answer teen-friendly topics. Ever wonder whether Taylor Swift鈥檚 presence at Kansas City Chiefs games during the 2023 NFL season had an effect on Travis Kelce鈥檚 game performance? Is Simone Biles really the G.O.A.T.? Or how about the plastics problem 鈥� what is the best way to dispose of plastic and which country is handling plastics the best? Teens can download the data sets, manipulate the data to answer questions, create graphs to help visualize the data, and more. These are each set up to work like a class project, so teens can navigate them all by themselves 鈥� and yes, that means they can email to get full answer keys, too.
Cost: Free
Time commitment: 50 minutes per project
Best for: Pop culture lovers -
YouCubed is a research center at Stanford University鈥檚 Graduate School of Education that aims to improve engagement with math — both in how teachers teach math and how students engage with math. Their mathematical mindsets approach is proven to increase student test scores, engagement, persistence, and GPAs. Two of the best ways for teens to engage with the content are the data talks and their math course for students. For example, a about how much water goes into producing a single burger can be a quick, eye-popping five-minute provocation or spark more in-depth thinking (but no more than 15 minutes). The math course, , shares important information on the brain and learning with new evidence on the best ways to approach and learn math effectively. The course has six parts: the first three at 10 minutes each and the second three are 20 minutes each.
Cost: Free
Time commitment: 5 minutes for data talks, 90 minutes for the course
Best for: Students who don鈥檛 currently love math — but could -
If your teen really wants to dive into data science, they can take a free online class offered by Harvard University. In fact, all eight Ivy League universities offer free online classes that teens can take (and, of course, list on their college applications and resum茅s). Of the more than 850 classes available across subjects, 23 are data science classes (and 17 of those are offered by Harvard). If teens are really into data science, they can earn a professional certificate in data science. For example, Harvard鈥檚 Data Science: Visualization course is the second of nine courses offered for the professional certificate program. Auditing these courses is free, but if a teen completes all of the courses and wants a certificate, the certificate costs $219.
Cost: Free (A full professional certification costs $219)
Time commitment: 16 hours (courses are 8 weeks long, about 1-2 hours per week)
Best for: Students interested in checking out a college-level course
