Unlocking the World of Data Science for High School Students: Discover, Learn and Excel
Learning about data science as a high school student can come with so many benefits — from building a variety of skills that extend beyond technical computer knowledge to practicing asking questions to even helping with decision making.
In this blog post, we are sharing different ways that high school students can benefit from learning about data science. We will also discuss more about the realm of data science, how it intersects with artificial intelligence, as well as how you can build a strong early foundation as a data scientist.
What is data science for high school students?
Simply put, data science is the science of data. It is a field of study that uses statistics, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data. Effective data scientists explore data trends to answer pressing questions and are often called upon to explain their results to non-technical audiences.
Some industries using data science include:
Artificial Intelligence
Biotechnology
Finance
Healthcare
Law
Clean Energy
Data science offers one of the most promising long-term and rapidly growing career fields of the last decade. Technological progress surrounding how data is analyzed and mined have transformed data into a valuable commodity for a range of fields from healthcare to finance. Read on to find out the benefits of learning about data science as a high school student!
If you are interested in data science as a high school student, consider applying to the AI Scholars program at Inspirit AI. You can learn more about the live online program here.
Why learn data science for high school students?
There is a growing need for up-and-coming generations of students to learn how to effectively interact with data. Much like biology, chemistry and physics, high school students should start to build a strong foundation in data science early in their educational life to support progressive proficiency in data science later. Now that we have outlined what data science is for high school students, there are a number of benefits to learning about data science as a high school student — some of which we are sharing below.
IT IS APPLICABLE TO MANY FIELDS
Above all, students enrolled in data science courses can learn how to apply their curiosity in a result-oriented fashion as well as to develop critical communication skills. While not all students will become data scientists in the traditional sense, many careers intersect with data science and scientists. For instance, multidisciplinary project teams at a biotechnology firm may pair data scientists with product engineers and managers. If the engineers and managers have an existing foundation of data science knowledge, team cross-communication regarding data analytics can be made more effective and productive. Therefore, this is among many of a variety of career paths that benefit from an early introduction to fundamental concepts in data science.
HIGHLIGHTING COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Effective communication of insights is a crucial component of data science. You can learn about how to visualize data using tools like matplotlib, seaborn or Tableau. Additionally, you gain the opportunity to practice presenting your findings in a clear and compelling manner to engage and inform your audience.
NOT A SUBJECT IN HIGH SCHOOLS
While most high schools teach introductory computer processing and computer science, few high schools possess curricula dedicated to learning data science. By learning about data science through courses or projects, you can gain insight into technological advances and the evolution of how society interacts with technology that is continuously evolving.
Examples of data science applications
Now that you have learned more about the benefits of learning data science for high school students, you can begin to consider the applications of it. Let’s take a look at some in-depth data science applications in different industries!
EDUCATION
Data science plays an important role in nurturing a person’s academic, non-academic and social-emotional skills. It provides tools for measuring instructor performance, monitoring student requirements. It plays a diverse role in education and universities are using data science to innovate the curriculum.
HEALTHCARE
Medical data science has among the strongest potential to change healthcare, from diagnostic accuracy to personalized care. Precision medicine, in particular, helps precisely target treatments for patients. Individual cases can be analyzed in order to determine specific genes and cells that are often mutated. Such programs can analyze millions of individuals’ data in a matter of hours or days.
FINANCE
As one of the earliest applications of data science, finance is important in data. In fact, they go hand in hand. Even before the term “data science” was devised, finance was using it. Financial institutions were among the earliest users and pioneers of data analytics. Data science today is widely used in areas like risk analytics, customer management and algorithmic trading. Banks also benefit from data science and technologies like AI, natural language, processing and machine learning algorithms in a number of ways, such as fraud detection, risk management, sentiment analysis and personalized marketing.
DATA SCIENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It’s important to consider how data science and artificial intelligence (AI) intersect. Fundamentally, machines can't hope to mimic humans' cognitive processes without information -- and data scientists are tasked with "feeding" machines accurate data and statistical models that enable machines to learn autonomously. By constantly improving machine learning, society comes closer to realizing true artificial intelligence.
To put it simply, machine learning is the link that connects data science to artificial intelligence. This is because it is the process of learning from data over time. AI is the tool that can help data scientists get results and solutions for specific problems.
Data scientists contribute to the growth and development of AI. They create algorithms designed to learn patterns and correlations from data, which AI can use to create predictive models that generate insight from data. Data scientists also use AI as a tool to understand and inform business decision-making.
For instance, before a computer program tries to learn from the data, the human (or data analysis program) studies the data. Data Scientists often clean the data, extract out important elements and feed these into artificial intelligence to further learn from them. This intervention often helps artificial intelligence to learn more efficiently because it can be trained to be focused on selected subsets of the data, thereby improving the learning process.
How to Excel in Data Science for High School Students
To flourish in the field of data science, we are sharing important steps that a high school student can take.
Data science heavily relies on mathematical concepts and statistical analysis. You should focus on building your skills in algebra, calculus and probability theory to understand the underlying principles of data analysis.
Next, you should familiarize yourself with programming languages commonly used in data science - such as Python or R. Explore online resources, tutorials and coding platforms to practice writing code and manipulating data sets.
Furthermore, try to gain hands-on experience with real-world data. Seek opportunities to work with real data sets. Participate in data science competitions or contribute to open-source projects. This practical experience will enhance your understanding of data manipulation, cleaning and analysis techniques.
Conclusion
In closing, we hope you have discovered what data science is, the benefits of learning about it and ways to excel as a high school student. As data continues to grow exponentially, the demand for skilled data scientists will only increase. Embracing data science as a high schooler can unlock a world of possibilities and pave the way for a successful career. Start your data science journey today and embark on a thrilling adventure at the forefront of technological innovation.
If you are looking to learn about artificial intelligence as a high schooler, you may be interested in our AI Scholars Program at Inspirit AI. This includes a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by a team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
Sources and further reading
Helping High School Students Learn Data Science
IBM Data Science Professional Certificate | Coursera
Machine Learning Specialization (DeepLearning.AI) | Coursera
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
