Data handling
Lesson 1: What is data?
Introduction
In this first lesson of the unit, students learn about data. They research data on a chosen person and
explore ways this data can be grouped. Students also consider the data that organisations might hold on
them and the reasons that they have this data. They conclude the lesson by finding out about recent cases
where collected data has been misused.
Time: @60 minutes
Learning objectives
● To understand what data is
● To classify data
● To identify ways that data might be used
Materials needed: lesson presentation, printouts of Carroll diagram (slide 8), printouts of What data can
you find? (slides 16 & 17), printouts of the Who might have my data? worksheet and Examples of data
support sheets, and a web page showing the terms and conditions of an app popular with your class.
Lesson summary
1. Introduction: Who am I? (10 minutes)
2. What is data? (20 minutes)
3. How can data be used? (20 minutes)
4. How is data collected? (10 minutes)
Introduction: Who am I? (10 minutes)
● Provide students with printouts of slides 16 and 17. Explain that the image represents a famous
person of their choosing and that they are going to work in pairs to put facts about the person
around the image (slide 3).
● Invite suggestions as to what information they could record about the person. Examples can be
name, age, place of birth, date of birth, height, and favourite colour (see completed example on
slide 18). Give students time to research information about their selected person online. Remind
students it is good practice to check the reliability of information from the internet by checking
several sources to see if the same information is given. Display slide 4, and give out printed copies,
to remind the students of some of the information to add but encourage them to identify additional
information.
● After students have collected sufficient information, invite them to share the information with the
class and invite others to guess who the person is.
What is data? (20 minutes)
● Use slide 5 to explain to students that when facts like these are stored by computers, they are
called data. Establish that data is often made up of two parts: the name (which stays the same) and
the value (which can differ). Explain this by identifying a name and values in the information about
the famous person (date of birth (name), 23 February 1987 (value)).
● Allow students to consolidate this knowledge by asking questions relating to names and values of
data. What value do you have for data with the name place of birth? What could the name of data
with the value pizza be? Use table of slide 6 to record examples of data names and data values.
● Explain that data can be classified into groups. Ask students to look at the data they created and
discuss with their partners ways it could be grouped (slide 7).
1
Published by Micro:bit Educational Foundation microbit.org
Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
● Invite suggestions, before explaining that it can be sorted into words and numbers, and data that
stays the same and data that can change. When discussing each way of grouping, ask students to
identify examples (numbers: age, height, number of siblings; words: place of birth, favourite colour,
favourite food; stay the same: place of birth, date of birth; can change: age, favourite food, address).
● Use slide 8 to display a Carroll diagram. Ask students to explain how to use it to sort the types of
data. Discuss where some examples of data would be placed (date of birth, age, place of birth, last
city visited). Give students a copy of the slide and ask them to work with their partner to place the
data on their famous person into the Carroll diagram.
How can data be used? (20 minutes)
● Explain to students that the school keeps data on them (slide 9). Invite students to think/pair/share
what data the school needs before discussing as a class and identifying the types of data kept by
the school (e.g. name, address, age, medical information) and why.
● Invite students’ suggestions on who else might have data on them and what that data might be
(doctor’s surgery: medical information, prescriptions, operations; sports team: age, address). For
each example, identify why this data is needed.
● Ask students if they have store cards for any shops or any online accounts where they purchase or
download content (examples may include Game store card, PS4 Plus accounts, Xbox Live
accounts, Claire’s Accessories, Superdrug etc.). Invite students’ ideas on the type of data that these
stores/websites might hold about them and how these may be used (targeting adverts, reminding
them when renewal subscriptions are due - slide 10).
● Give students a copy of the ‘who might have my data?’ sheet and the ‘data name’ sheet (slide 11).
Give students time to work in pairs to complete the sheets, identifying the data that different
organisations might have on them and the reasons why the organisation might have this data.
Discuss their answers as a class.
How is data collected? (10 minutes)
● Establish that the school gets all its data on students by requesting it from their parents/carers while
internet-based technologies get this data when we tick the terms and conditions of using their
device (slides 12 and 13).
● Display a web page showing the terms and conditions for an app or website popular with your class.
Highlight to students that when they tick to accept, they are agreeing to every point in the terms and
conditions.
● Invite suggestions from students on devices they have in their homes that are connected to the
internet. Steer students towards the most recent technologies such as watches, cameras, digital
assistants (e.g. Alexa, Google Home, etc.), and central heating systems (e.g. Hive).
● Explain that these devices collect data about us when we use them and discuss how the types of
information that we ask Alexa for can be used to target advertising.
● Use the link on slide 14 to share an example of how a company has collected and misused
students’ data. Invite students to share any other examples they may have come across.
● If you wish, use slide 15 to review the learning outcomes of the lesson.
Extension ideas
Students could research and produce posters to display around the school to inform others of their rights
relating to their data.
2
Published by Micro:bit Educational Foundation microbit.org
Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Differentiation
Support
Provide students with examples of data to sort using the ‘examples of data’ support sheet.
Stretch & challenge
Students can be challenged to show more sophistication when answering how their data might be used by
organisations by identifying a possible positive and negative use of data.
Opportunities for assessment
● Informal assessment of students’ understanding of types of data and how it can be grouped through
paired activities.
● More formal assessment of students’ worksheets and how their data may be used by others.
3
Published by Micro:bit Educational Foundation microbit.org
Licence: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
