Writers use "hooks" early in their writer to keep the reader interested. What can data educators use as hooks? That is, what types of datasets and problem statements will keep students interested and engaged in the lesson? Proprietary datasets from the business are a great choice: they carry real meaning to students outside the classroom, so the student immediately sees the value of learning. It's very difficult to find publicly-available proprietary datasets, so you'll need to work internally to produce this data, which can unfortunately be difficult within some organizations. But business datasets are far from the only ones that "hook" users. Consider using datasets as varied as movie ratings, baseball records, or baby names. Your students have likely gobbled up a listicle or ranking of this type of data: for example, the "Top 10 Baby Names of 2019." Ultimately, learning data should be seen as being fun. It may seem more practical to focus solely on direct business examples, but these outside sources can prove equally worthwhile.

1. Hooking learners into data
education

2. “Buy the book and they’ll buy the
story”
• “Hook:” literary technique at opening of
story, grabbing reader’s attention to keep
going
• Data hooks: What datasets/problem
statements will keep the learner’s
attention?

3. Proprietary data from the business
• Of immediate interest/direct experience to
students
• Hard to find proprietary datasets online:
that’s private and valuable!
• Using internal proprietary datasets is more
realistic, but takes the right data culture to
implement

4. Public data from real life
• Doesn’t have to do anything with
business:
• Baseball records
• Baby names
• Movie reviews
• People love listicles & rankings of this
type of data (i.e. “Top 10 baby names in
2019”) – scratch that itch!

5. There’s more to data literacy than
business examples
• Teaching immediate business use cases is
too narrow
• Your students should see data as a means
of creativity & engagement with the world
• Data literacy means, among other things,
having fun with data!

6. LET'S TALK
WEBSITE
stringfestanalytics.com
EMAIL ADDRESS
george@stringfestanalytics.com
LINKEDIN
linkedin.com/in/gjmount