MVP

Postdoc project at UTK

Mathematizing, Visualizing, and Power (MVP): Appalachian Youth Becoming Data Artists for Community Learning is a three-year NSF-funded research project (NSF Award Number: 2215004) that focuses on community-centered data exploration catalyzed by youth. The project develops statistical artistry among young people in East Tennessee Appalachian communities and enables these youth to share their data visualizations with their communities to foster collective reflection and understanding. The creative work generated by the MVP project will be compelling in two ways, both as statistical art and as powerful statements giving voice to the experience of communities. Critical aspects of the MVP model include (1) youth learning sessions that position youth as owners of data and producers of knowledge and (2) Community Learning Events that support community learning as youth learning occurs. The MVP project has a primary focus on broadening the STEM participation of underrepresented communities of Appalachia. The project’s mission is to increase the learning and life outcomes of young people and communities of Appalachia by creating a meaningful foundation of data science and collective data exploration.

The MVP project had four cycles from Spring 2023 to Summer 2024. I joined this project in Summer 2023. My primary roles are 1) leading the on-site data collection (Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 HS site), 2) leading the data processing team, 3) leading the research on three aspects (youth data science learning, youth data-art connections, and data science for social good), and 4) results dissemination. After I joined the MVP project, I’ve led a journal article that explores youth’s data-art connections and has been accepted to Journal of Science Education and Technology (Zhao et al., 2024), one AERA 2024 annual meeting symposium presentation (Zhao, 2024), and two ICLS 2024 presentations (Zhao et al., 2024) (Zhao & Dyer, 2024). I have also collaborated with colleagues on conference presentations at ICLS 2024 (Schafer et al., 2024) and PME annual conference 47 (missing reference). I am also preparing manuscripts that focus on youth’s personal data relevance and engagement in the MVP program.

Below are the pictures from the MVP program.

Left: a Learning Session at a rural Tennessee high school Right: a Community Learning Event at a local community college art center

Below are some fabulous data-artwork our students created in the MVP program.

Left: Consumerism Middle: Urban heat Right: Youth voice

References

2024

  1. Bridging Data and Art: Investigating Data-Art Connections in a Data-Art Inquiry Program
    Y Zhao, J Bertling, L Hodge, and 1 more author
    Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2024
  2. Data Reasoning With Self-Authored Visualization in the MVP (Mathematizing, Visualizing, and Power) Project
    Y Zhao
    In American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting 2024, 2024
  3. Exploring Youth’s Data Reasoning with Data Visualization
    Yilang Zhao, Joy Bertling, and Elizabeth Dyer
    In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2024, pp. 2323-2324, 2024
  4. Data Visualization Renarrated: Probing the Role of Renarrating in Data Visualization Reimagining
    Yilang Zhao, and Elizabeth B Dyer
    In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2024, pp. 1390-1393, 2024
  5. The Role of Entry Points in Defining, Cultivating, and Sustaining Community Learning with Data Artists
    George Schafer, Elizabeth B Dyer, Christopher Wright, and 2 more authors
    In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2024, pp. 2439-2440, 2024