🌟 Data Science for Kids at VISST

🌟 Data Science for Kids at VISST#

A magical 5-day journey into the world of data science for young explorers aged 10-14

Welcome to an enchanting adventure where mathematics meets magic, and data tells stories! This summer camp introduces fundamental data science concepts through hands-on activities, storytelling, and creative projects using R programming.

👋 Meet Your Instructor#

Sky (Kehan) Sheng is a PhD candidate at UBC conducting interdisciplinary research in data science, AI bias, and animal welfare science. Sky is passionate about making data science and AI accessible and fun for young learners.

👋 Meet Your Mentors#

  • Pavel Timofeev

  • Ify Anene

  • Sarah Eshafi

🗓️ 5-Day Adventure Plan#

Day

Theme

Key Concepts

1

🏰 Basic Programming Magic

Variables, data types, if-else conditions

2

🪄 Loops and Magic Libraries

For loops, packages, ggplot2, dataframes

3

🎨 Data Storytelling

Data wrangling, advanced visualization

4

🌲 Statistics Enchanted Forest

Mean, sampling, confidence intervals

5

🧙‍♀️ Machine Learning & AI

KNN, AI, ethics and future

🚀 Quick Start Guide#

Technology Setup#

  1. Set up Posit Cloud - Our magical coding environment (recommended!)

  2. Create Claude account - Your AI programming assistant

  3. Backup: Local R Setup - For offline adventures

🎒 What YOU Need#

  • Laptop or tablet with internet connection

  • Curiosity and creativity (most important!)

  • Cloud computing account: Posit Cloud account (free)

  • Optional: Claude account (free)

🙏 Acknowledgments#

This workshop builds upon the excellent work of:

  • Girls in Data Science workshop by Dr. Katie Burak, Jenny Lee, and Mona Zhu [Burak et al., 2023]

  • Data Science: A First Introduction by Dr. Tiffany Timbers, Dr. Trevor Campbell, and Dr. Melissa Lee [Timbers et al., 2022]

  • ModernDive by Dr. Chester Ismay and Dr. Albert Y. Kim [Ismay and Kim, 2019]

Contents