Fall 2017 SAVI Online Magazine Emagazine Fall 2017 FINAL | Page 13

As their focus widened, the
students’ questions multiplied,
and things got interesting. “Data
visualizations have become so rich
and powerful in getting across
information,” Pumphrey says. “It
gives you a lot to talk about.”
“One thing educators talk about
all the time is curiosity, and how kids
struggle to ask good questions,”
Sidey says. “Data visualizations
naturally lend themselves to asking
questions. Students routinely asked
“Just by projecting the data
onto maps, and asking the
students to look at it and come
up with their own questions
and observations about it—that
was much more powerful than
a lecture. Because they were
really driven by their
own interest in it.”
— JANE SIDEY

English Teacher
Park Tudor
things like, ‘I wonder why the divorce
rate is higher here than here? I
wonder why this area is much poorer
than this area? I wonder why this
area has lots of parks and green
space?’ I mean, they were curious
about everything from criminal
records to levels of education.”
Pumphrey and Sidey say their
own pa ssion for the project was
one key to the class’s success.
It “definitely rubbed off on the
students,” Pumphrey says.
“Messing About with Maps” class participants insisted
on a group photo for the SAVI magazine!
“We were motivated and
interested, and that helped them to
be motivated and interested.”
“We didn’t really have to teach,”
Sidey says. “Just by projecting the
data onto maps, and asking the
students to look at it and come
up with their own questions and
observations about it—that was
much more powerful than a lecture.
Because they were really driven by
their own interest in it.”
One highlight of the first semester
was a trip to The Polis Center at
IUPUI, where students got to meet
the people behind SAVI and flex their
new critical-thinking muscles.
“One of the kids actually asked,
‘What is the goal in doing this?
What are you hoping to achieve?’”
Sidey says. “And that’s a pretty
sophisticated question for a seventh
or eighth grader to ask: What is your
agenda here? I’m not sure a question
like that would have been asked if it
had been a lecture-based class.”
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