- There is A LOT of data online. That could probably be my first comment about anything online. :-) So, data collection can be time-consuming.
- A good way to start online data collection is to limit yourself or your students to government agencies, global corporations, colleges and universities. I think that for future projects I will create a small collection of "great sites to check first" for my students so they see what valuable data looks like.
- Provide examples for the students. Just showing them the tables or graphs of data is probably not enough for all students. They need to be a part of the process where the investigative question is developed, then the data is analysed and finally how to draw conclusions.
Having visited and added to my Delicious account the Physics Factbook as well as the Road Test Data from Car and Driver Magazine, I really appreciate the value of motivating students with authentic data and an engaging question: how do we know who the fastest human is?
There definitely is A LOT of data online. I like the generating an argument model because they suggest giving the data to students. With my middle school students this is probably the path I will take, not because I think they will not find good data, but I think they would have a tough time developing the question they are trying to answer. Providing your high school students with examples, and sites to obtain data is a great idea.. especially the examples!
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