Help Students Explore Data: Free Tools for Building Data Fluency

Presented by Chad Dorsey, President and CEO, the Concord Consortium; and Bill Finzer, Senior Scientist, the Concord Consortium
Sponsored by The Concord Consortium

Watch the Recording

Data are everywhere—but how can you prepare your students for a data-rich future? In this edWebinar learn how you can bring data experiences into your classroom. Chad Dorsey, President & CEO, and Bill Finzer, Senior Scientist at the Concord Consortium, lead this hands-on session. Both are education, technology, and pedagogy professionals. You will:

• Learn how free NSF-supported online tools can help your students explore data and create their own visualizations
• Learn the important building blocks of immersive data experiences
• Learn how to identify key techniques for creating successful data experiences

Middle school through higher education teachers, school and district leaders, and those interested in helping their students become data fluent will benefit from watching this recorded session. Watch to see how free tools and tips can help you start “doing data science” in your classroom today!

About the Presenters
Chad Dorsey is President and CEO of the Concord Consortium. His experience ranges across the fields of science, education, and technology. In addition to overseeing a wide variety of STEM educational technology projects at the Concord Consortium, he is a thought leader across the field of educational technology, presenting and serving on advisory groups, panels, and professional workshops. Prior to joining the Concord Consortium in 2008, Chad led teacher professional development workshops as a member of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. Chad has also taught science in classrooms from middle schools through college and has guided educational reform efforts at the district-wide and whole-school levels. While earning his B.A. in physics at St. Olaf College and his M.A. in physics at the University of Oregon, Chad conducted experimental fluid mechanics research, built software models of Antarctic ice streams, and dragged a radar sled by hand across South Cascade Glacier. He first met computers when his family hooked an Apple II to their fancy new color TV set, and he’s been a shameless geek ever since.

Senior Scientist Bill Finzer’s work has long centered on bringing students to use data in every subject they study. Before joining the Concord Consortium in 2014, Bill spent years leading a software development team at KCP Technologies in creating the groundbreaking data exploration software Fathom Dynamic Data. At the Concord Consortium, Bill leads development of Fathom’s free, online successor, the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP), and oversees development of curriculum and activity exemplars furthering data science education. Bill has been a classroom teacher, curriculum developer, teacher professional development course designer and leader, and educational software developer. Bill works with staff of many projects both inside and outside Concord Consortium to help them make use of CODAP. He loves nothing better than fixing bugs and implementing new features in CODAP. Bill has a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.S. from UC Berkeley, and a passion for getting better at playing viola.

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The Concord Consortium, a non-profit organization based in Concord, MA and Emeryville, CA, is the country’s leading innovator in STEM educational technology research and development. Find hundreds of the Concord Consortium’s free top-quality, interactive STEM education resources at learn.concord.org.