BPS to open source a curriculum on open-source data

The Boston City Council this week formally accepted a $500,000 grant from the state Department of Education to develop a lesson plan for teaching students how to use open data sources - with a focus on the city's own Analyze Boston collection of public data sets on everything from crime reports and restaurant inspections to listings of city streetlights and data on where people are using parking meters.

These funds will be used to assist BPS teachers in designing a curriculum using Analyze Boston. DoIT [the city IT department] is also working with an organization, Data Science for Everyone, which introduces data science in elementary to high school classrooms to help shape the open data curriculum. This grant will also assist in funding a Project Manager to implement this program.

Councilor Henry Santana (at large), who chairs the council's education committee, said that although the program will initially be focused on high-school students, it could be extended to lower grades.

"It's a great way to encourage civic engagement," he said, adding that once the curriculum is finished, BPS will make it available for free so that educators in other districts can adapt it for their own needs.

The council voted unanimously to accept the grant.