Bringing authentic research and data into the classroom

Data Nuggets are free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers, that bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Each activity is written with a scientist who shares their story and a bit of their research and data. Students are guided through the process of science, including identifying hypotheses and predictions, visualizing and interpreting data, supporting claims using data as evidence, and asking their own questions. 

The Data Nuggets program is led by Elizabeth Schultheis, KBS LTER Education & Outreach Coordinator, and Melissa Kjelvik. Since their start in 2011 as part of our K-12 Partnership between teachers and scientists, they have reached hundreds of thousands of students around the world. Research on Data Nuggets has shown they increase student interest in STEM careers, confidence in their ability to work with data, and through scientist stories can help students relate to scientists and increase classroom engagement.

Data Nuggets based on KBS LTER data and other sites across the LTER Network can be found here! The full list of 140 data literacy activities can be found here.