Graduate student Jessica Guo is passionate about science education. And she has lots of experience teaching coding and big data. Guo combined passion and experience to present a weeklong workshop on big data to students from Mesa Public Schools.

Twelve 11th- and 12th-grade girls spent their fall break learning a statistical computing program called “R,” which they used to analyze big data. The skills they learned will be valuable in future careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Seniors Yazmin Flores (left), 17, and Theresa Ruiz, 18, realize their coding works during the “From Big Data to Big Ideas” workshop put on by ASU grad student Jessica Guo for high school girls at Mesa Public Schools' Educational Technology Training Labs on Oct. 16. More than a dozen juniors and seniors gave up part of their fall break to compile, organize and utilize weather data over a 29-year period. Download Full Image

“Programs like this one are narrowing the gap in girls’ participation and success in math and science,” said Monica Elser, education manager for ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

According to Guo, the primary goal of the workshop was for girls to develop coding skills while learning to work with large, publicly available datasets.

“In my experience teaching grad students and undergrads, learning to code in R has a steep learning curve, so I was really impressed with this group of girls and their persistence,” said Guo.

“My hope is that these students use their newly developed coding skills as a springboard for achieving their STEM goals.”

“The workshop capitalized on a broad range of data and ASU resources to create something really special for these students,” Elser said.