Yorktown High School, course 23195, grades 9 to 12

Ask a better question.

A full-year math credit where you collect real data, analyze it, and defend what you found. No prior coding needed.

See the four quarters Is it right for me?
US mortality rate, 1968 to 2010
Deaths per 100,000 people
1200 1000 800 600 1968 2010 Males Everyone Females
Men's rate fell about 27 percent. Women's fell about 5 percent. Everyone fell about 17 percent, which is not the average of the other two. Working out why is one week of this course. Source: US mortality data, 1968 and 2010.

Four questions, one per quarter

Each quarter is one full pass through the data cycle, and each one ends in something you can show somebody. The work gets less scaffolded every time.

Quarter 1

Ask a question you care about

Pick something in your own life you can measure. Sleep, spending, screen time, your commute. Track it by hand for three weeks while you learn to read a chart properly and build one.

Your own data comes back messy, which is the point. Cleaning it is a lot easier to care about when it is yours.

Ends withA data story about your own life, presented to the class.
Quarter 2

Somebody else's messy data

Find real data in the wild: files, spreadsheets, databases. Learn enough SQL to ask a database a question, then clean at a scale where doing it by hand stops working.

Then the harder part. Who does this data leave out, and what does that mean it cannot tell you?

Ends withA cleaned dataset, a log of every decision you made, and a memo on its bias.
Quarter 3

Make the data predict

Describe one variable, then two. Fit models, straight and curved. Read what the errors are telling you.

Then the question that makes this course hard: several models fit, so which one is actually best, and how would you know?

Ends withA model, and a written defense of why that one and not the others you tried.
Quarter 4

Your investigation

Plan a real data project. The goal, who has a stake in it, what you will deliver, and how you will know it worked. Get it approved, then run it.

Everything from the first three quarters, applied instead of taught. This replaces a written final exam.

Ends withAn independent investigation, presented publicly.

If you are choosing between this and AP Statistics

Both are good. They are not the same course, and the honest differences matter more than the sales pitch.

Data ScienceAP Statistics
GPA weight Unweighted. This is a real cost and you should count it. Weighted, one extra quality point.
How you are graded Four projects you build and present. Coursework plus one national exam in May.
College credit None. It is a standard credit toward graduation. Possible, depending on your exam score and the college.
What you spend time on Getting messy data into a state where it can answer a question, then arguing from it. Inference: what a sample lets you conclude about a population, done rigorously.
Tools Spreadsheets, then Python, then databases. Calculator and statistical software.
You leave with Four finished pieces of work you can show somebody. A score, and a strong foundation in inference.

Take AP Statistics if you want the weighted credit and the possibility of college credit. Take this if you want to be the person who can be handed an unfamiliar dataset and make honest progress on it. Plenty of students take both.

Most math classes end in a score. This one ends in four things you built.

That is the whole argument for taking it, and it is worth being honest that it costs you a weighted credit to get.

What you leave with

Four artifacts, not four grades

A data story about your own life

You choose the question, gather every observation yourself, and stand up and explain what you found to a room. Most students have never presented an argument built on evidence they collected.

Quarter 1

A cleaned dataset

Published with a log of every decision you made and why. The log is the part that shows your judgment.

A defended model

Including the models you tried and rejected, and your reasoning for the one you kept.

A bias memo

A short written account of who your data leaves out and what it therefore cannot support.

An independent investigation

Your question, your data, your method, presented publicly at the end of the year.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need to know how to code?

No, and the course is built on the assumption that you do not. You start in spreadsheets. When Python arrives you read and change working code long before you write any from scratch, and every assignment has a route through it that does not depend on becoming a fluent programmer.

Is this an easy math class?

No. It is a different one. There is less symbol manipulation than Algebra II and considerably more writing, and the last quarter asks you to plan and run a project on your own. Students who want a light senior year are usually happier somewhere else.

Does it count for graduation?

Yes. It is one standard mathematics credit and counts toward both the Standard and Advanced Studies Diploma. It does not carry a Standards of Learning test, so it cannot supply your verified mathematics credit. That has to come from Algebra I, Geometry or Algebra II.

Should I take Algebra II first?

The Virginia Board of Education recommends it for students pursuing an Advanced Studies Diploma. The course itself is built so that a student who has finished Algebra I can succeed in every unit. If you are on the Advanced Studies track, talk to your counselor about sequence before you register.

What does the homework look like?

Homework is 10 percent of each quarter grade and is mostly short. The real work is the quarter project, which builds across weeks rather than arriving the night before. In the first quarter you record one measurement a day for about three weeks, which takes a couple of minutes.

What if I get something wrong?

Any major assessment below 80 percent can be retaken after we sit down and work through what went wrong. The higher score counts, up to 80 percent. Deadlines are real, but late work handed in before its unit closes is graded in full with nothing deducted.