DSSI 2026

Monday, June 22nd, 2026

1:00pm Welcome to the Data Science Summer Institute

We'll get ourselves settled in the Barn, go over the plan for the week, and start to get to know each other before kicking the week off.

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Opening Slide Deck

2:00pm Data Collection Activity

We will engage in a data collection activity, process the data, and import into CODAP for some initial exploratory data analysis.

Resources:

Helicopter Data Spreadsheet
Activity based on: NASA Paper Helicopter Engineering Project

4:00pm Dismiss for the day

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026

8:30am Arrival and Coffee

9:00am Group photo at the Academic Commons

9:30am Data Science 4 Everyone: State of the Field - Sean Sukol

Sean Sukol, Data Science 4 Everyone's data and policy analyst, introduces a national coalition working to make data science a fundamental component of US K-12. Includes an overview of how DS4E supports data science education and an analysis of the field in terms of policy adoption, course availability, student enrollment and teacher professional development activity, and barriers to implementation.

10:00am Jupyter Everywhere: A Shareable Computing Environment for Teaching Data Science - Mahmoud Harding
Want to create engaging, interactive learning experiences for your data science students? Interested in easily distributing materials while introducing students to modern, industry-aligned tools and practices? In this session, participants will explore how to use Jupyter Everywhere to design and distribute data science activities and lessons. Attendees will leave with practical ideas and resources they can immediately use in their classrooms

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Slide Decks

10:30am ☕ Coffee Break ☕

10:45am Data Sleuths: Asking Questions, Finding Patterns, Telling Stories - Craig Lazarski and Katie Sherman

This interactive workshop invites participants to explore data beyond the traditional spreadsheet. Through hands-on activities with Voyant Tools and Gapminder, participants will analyze text patterns, word clouds, and global migration trends to ask questions, identify patterns, and make evidence-based inferences. The session highlights how data can help us investigate stories in both words and numbers.

Resources:

Slide Deck

12:00pm 🥘 Lunch 🥘

Novice Track

1:00pm Making Sense of Data Visualizations and Exploring Restaurants with CODAP

This session with introduce the Making Sense of Data Visualization framework and support teachers in their ability to use CODAP in their classrooms.

Resources:

Slide Deck

2:15pm ☕ Coffee Break ☕

Experienced Track

1:00pm Cultivating AI Competency: Teaching Data Science and Machine Learning through Agriculture - Jon Davis

A practical subject like agriculture can be used to teach data science and machine learning. In this session, an NCSSM instructor will share his lessons involving weather station data analysis and computer vision projects. This work enables students to move beyond programming mechanics to focus on data intuition, system orchestration, and skeptical verification of AI tools to solve agricultural problems.

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Presentation Materials

2:15pm ☕ Coffee Break ☕

2:30pm Constructing Data from Primary Sources - Craig Lazarski

In this workshop, participants will use records from the National Archives to construct a messy data table, clean it, and explore what it can reveal. Along the way, we will consider the interpretive choices involved in building data from historical sources and how those choices can shape the inferences we draw.

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Slide Deck

3:15pm Exploring Skew The Script Lessons - Katie Sherman

In this workshop, participants will explore lessons from the Skew The Script catalog and consider practical strategies for implementing them in the classroom.

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Slide Deck

Wednesday, June 24th, 2026

8:30am Arrival and Coffee

9:00am Experience AI & Machine Learning for Kids - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Experience foundational AI concepts through activities and projects built with Machine Learning for Kids. Participants will explore key design principles for teaching and learning about AI, including avoiding anthropomorphism and understanding the differences between rule-based and data-driven systems. Through hands-on examples, attendees will examine how machine learning models are created and applied to address real-world problems. This session provides an accessible introduction to AI literacy while engaging participants in designing, testing, and evaluating machine learning-powered projects.

Resources:

Slide Deck

10:30am ☕ Coffee Break ☕

10:45am Exploring the Data Science Lifecycle with Orange Data Mining - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Discover how to build machine learning solutions using Orange, a powerful low-code visual programming environment for data science. Participants will work through the complete data science lifecycle, including problem definition, data collection and preparation, exploratory data analysis, model building, evaluation, and communication of results. Through drag-and-drop workflows, attendees will create and analyze a real-world data project while learning how data scientists transform raw data into actionable insights. This session provides an accessible entry point to machine learning while reinforcing best practices used throughout the data science process.

Resources:

Slide Deck

11:45am 🥘 Lunch 🥘

Today at lunch we'll hear from 2 groups of NCSSM students who are currently working on a summer project that uses data science to solve a real-world problem for organizations in our NCSSM-Morganton community.

Novice Track - The Barn

1:00pm Exploring Data Visualization and Association with CODAP

This session builds on the Making Sense of Data Visualizations framework as we continue exploring how data visualizations can support the development of data literacy. Participants will also engage in a data investigation focused on association using CODAP. Throughout the session, you will have opportunities to reflect on your engagement across the various phases of the data investigation process.

Resources:

Slides

2:15pm ☕ Coffee Break ☕

Experienced Track

1:00pm Programming AI Applications with Machine Learning for Kids - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Take your Machine Learning for Kids projects to the next level by connecting trained machine learning models to Python programs through the Machine Learning for Kids API. Participants will build a complete solution that combines a machine learning model with rule-based programming to create interactive applications. Along the way, attendees will explore practical strategies for teaching programming concepts using approaches from the Big Book of Computing Pedagogy. This session is ideal for educators looking to integrate AI and programming in meaningful, classroom-ready ways.

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Coming soon

2:15pm ☕ Coffee Break ☕

2:30pm From Dot Products to k-Nearest Neighbors: Building Simple Recommendation Systems - Raspberry Pi Foundation

Explore the mathematical foundations behind modern recommendation and classification systems by using vectors, dot products, and similarity measures to compare data. Participants will build a comparison tool that uses the dot product to identify similarities between data points and extend that learning to understand and implement the k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) algorithm. The session includes classroom-ready Java activities, with Python versions available for participants who are less familiar with Java. Drawing on strategies from the Big Book of Computing Pedagogy, attendees will engage with discussions about algorithmic bias and ethical data use. This session directly connects to AP Computer Science A topics related to data collection, file processing, arrays, object-oriented programming, and the ethical and social impacts of computing.

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Coming soon

5:30pm Happy Hour @ Fonta Flora Taproom

Come grab a drink and socialize this evening at Fonta Flora brewery, right across the street from The Fairfield Inn and Suites in downtown Morganton. We have the side room reserved for our event. Fonta Flora is known for their beer, but also serve wine, and have non-alcoholic drink options available as well. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, June 25th, 2026

8:30am Arrival and Coffee

9:00am Playing a Practice Round: The Power of Simulation - Taylor Gibson

In a data-abundant world, empowering all learners requires moving beyond passive formula memorization to active, conceptual mastery. This highly interactive session introduces an accessible, three-step pedagogical framework designed to demystify complex statistical concepts for diverse student populations. Participants will actively engage in two simulation cycles to conduct simulation-based inference. By bridging tactile, unplugged play with digital tools, attendees will experience how providing multiple entry points makes data science relevant and transformative for every student.

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10:15am ☕ Coffee Break ☕

10:30am Bringing Data Science to Your Classroom

This session is designed to support teachers as they prepare to bring data science into their classrooms next school year. Through guided planning, collaboration, and reflection, participants will identify entry points for data science within their curriculum and create concrete plans for implementation.

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Slide Deck

11:30am End of workshop wrap-up

This session will provide information on how to receive your stipend, a survey to let us know how we did in each session, and time for any other parting thoughts to share before we head our separate ways.

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12:00pm 🥘 Lunch 🥘

1:00pm Dismiss for the day

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