Unit 5

Topics to be addressed:

• Data and information
• Algorithms and abstraction
• Connections between mathematics and computer science
• Programming
• Societal impacts of computing

Topic Description:

In this unit students explore how computing has facilitated new methods of managing and interpreting data. Students will use computers to translate, process and visualize data in order to find patterns and test hypotheses. Students will work with a variety of large data sets that illustrate how widespread access to data and information facilitates identification of problems. Students will collect and generate their own data related to local community issues and discuss appropriate methods for data collection and aggregation of data necessary to support making a case or facilitating a discovery.

Objectives:

The student will be able to:

• Describe the features of appropriate data sets for specific problems.
• Apply a variety of analysis techniques to large data sets.
• Use computers to find patterns in data and test hypotheses about data.
• Compare different analysis techniques and discuss the tradeoffs among them.
• Justify conclusions drawn from data analysis.