Data literacy is a critical skill youth need for understanding our complex and ever-changing world. To develop these skills and build student capacity to connect data to content knowledge and create meaning, the Nurture Nature Center led a project team that included the Education Development Center, NOAA/CIRES, and J. Sickler Consulting to develop a new model for middle school science classrooms called Building Insights through Observation (BIO). BIO uses hands-on, arts-based approaches with science content and geospatial data visualizations – it has been field-tested with ten teachers from across the country and we have developed an adaptive digital toolbox to share the model with others. The BIO toolbox provides an overview of the approach, step by step instructions for its implementation, example lessons tested by our teacher partners, and a wealth of resources, datasets, images, and materials to support its use in formal classrooms. The BIO approach is adaptable for most Earth and Environmental Science topics, allows differentiation for learners, pacing and discussion, and supports student-driven sensemaking.

We encourage you to check out the toolbox here https://nurturenaturecenter.org/bio/overview

There are also several upcoming opportunities to learn more about the BIO project, toolbox and approaches:

1. Science Scope Article (March/April): An article about the BIO model will be published as part of the March/April issue in NSTA’s Science Scope.
2. NSTA Sessions (March, 29): Project team members will be presenting about BIO at the upcoming NSTA conference in Philadelphia, PA.  If you are planning to attend, please stop by!
   • How the Arts Improve Teaching and Learning of Data Literacy: Findings from New Research, Saturday March 29, 2025 8:45 am, 30 min presentation, Location 109A
   • Supporting Sensemaking by BIO – An Interdisciplinary Model for Teaching with Data Visualizations in Middle School Science, Saturday March 29^th 11:40 am, 60 minute Hands-on workshop, Location 122A

3. BIO Webinar (April 9, 6-7pm ET/4-5pm MT): We are planning to share about the project, approach, and toolbox during a virtual webinar.  The registration link is below. Please share with your colleagues, contacts and networks: https://ceee.colorado.edu/events/building-insights-through-observation-bio-teaching-data-visualizations-middle-school-science

Building Insights through Observation (BIO) is a project funded by the National Science Foundation, designed to advance our understanding of how science teachers can learn to incorporate arts-based teaching methods and visualizations of authentic science data into their pedagogical practices in order to improve students’ data literacy and critical thinking skills.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2101310. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.