Data Dunkers Visit MVSD!
It has been an action-packed week here in MVSD as we welcomed the Data Dunkers team to our division! You may recall that I had an opportunity to learn about this program in the fall of 2023 as I attended a session at CyberSummit. At the time, I had made note of what a cool opportunity it could be for students, but they had shared that their work had been in major cities; of which MVSD is not. Fast-track to May at Riding The Wave and I was pleasantly surprised to connect with Katina and the Data Dunkers team again. This time, I was able to advocate for the expansion to rural communities and was absolutely thrilled when Katina emailed me at the end of May to share that they would be willing to travel out to visit us! Given the fact that this would involve multiple plane trips from New York and Toronto to Winnipeg, and then a 3+ hour commute across the prairies to Dauphin, this was no small journey for the team; and a big win for our division.
If this program is new to you, Data Dunkers is a program that is hosted in partnership with various stakeholders like PS43, Dell, and Logics Academy.
PS43 is a not-for-profit organization that supports children through financial literacy, sports, and life skills. This leverages basketball and technology as learning tools
Why Data Science?
- The opportunities to learn about data and data-related skills are lacking
- It helps make informed decisions
- Data is a top in-demand occupation
Program Objectives
- Learn foundational data science through basketball stats
- Engage and inspire underserved students, schools, and communities
- Discover and explore career pathways
We had two team members join us to facilitate this program:
- Jeremiah Okal-Frink from Dell
- Mary Walker Hope from Logics Academy
Both Jeremiah and Mary were absolutely incredible. From their organization and understanding of the material, to their interactions with students and flexibility, everything about our experience ran so smoothly!
We were able to deliver the program at two locations, Mackenzie Middle School in Dauphin (Grades 6-8) and Ochre River School in Ochre River (Grades 5-8).
While it was very exciting to offer a new experience like this to our students, I am also cognizant of the fact that June in schools is incredibly chaotic. Final assessments, field trips, prom, band concerts, report cards; students (and their teachers) are stretched to the max. However, our staff who volunteered to participate in this program were absolute rockstars! They welcomed our team into their facilities, changed their schedules, set up new LMS’s, and were willing to learn some new coding skills along the way. A HUGE shout-out goes to Steven Hudyma, Easton Hedley, Catlin Adams, and Wendy Oversby for everything they did to make this event work in their classes. We were also supported by the technician teams in both buildings and various support roles who assisted on both days. As much as I advocate for these types of events, I cannot do this without all of these amazing people and I really appreciate everything they do.
Over the two days, our students had an opportunity to:
- learn more about the role data science plays in sports organizations like the NBA
- discuss what it means to make data-informed decisions and see how that can impact them
- learn about coding through Python
- collect data using digital tools
- compile data and use coding to gain insights from their data
Throughout the experience, I was on-site as an additional assistant and also gathered various media. Our photos/videos are summarized below via embedded Instagram posts:
This is a program I would recommend to anyone in middle-senior years. Thank you again to the team for making this happen in MVSD.