1. Home
  2. Curriculum
  3. Unit 1

API Can Code Curriculum

Unit 1 | Data in Learners' Lives

This unit aims to empower students with a comprehensive understanding of data, its significance, and its impact on various aspects of their lives.


Through this unit, students will explore and discuss the entities that collect their data and learn about data sources and ways to evaluate datasets. Students will also investigate how data can influence social equity and inclusivity.

By the end of the unit students will become informed and responsible consumers of data, enabling them to make more informed decisions and fostering a deeper awareness of data's role in shaping the world around them. Moreover, they will be encouraged to consider the ethical implications of data use, promoting a sense of responsibility as future citizens and potential data collectors.

Join the API Can Code Community

Lesson 1.1: Introduction to Data

In this lesson, students will learn about different types of data through a dataset from Kaggle. Students will use knowledge of different types of data to categorize data in their own lives that they consume and create.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-DA-09, 3A-DA-10, 3A-DA-11, 3A-DA-12, 3A-IC-24

Lesson 1.2: Data Collection and its Purpose

In this lesson, students will learn about different stakeholders who collect data and their motivations. Students will identify the collectors of data in their own lives, and discuss privacy and bias issues.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-IC-24, 3A-IC-25, 3A-IC-29, 3A-IC-30

Lesson 1.3: Using Data

In this lesson, students will learn about the process of generating insight from data and will be introduced to the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) model.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-AP-13, 3A-DA-09, 3A-DA-10, 3A-DA-11, 3A-DA-12, 3A-IC-24, 3A-IC-29

Lesson 1.4: Sources of Data

In this lesson, students will learn about primary and secondary sources of data and sort data sources according to these new categorizations.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-DA-09, 3A-DA-10, 3A-DA-11, 3A-IC-24, 3A-IC-25, 3B-DA-06

Lesson 1.5: Evaluating Data Sources

In this lesson, students will learn to evaluate datasets using the 5 V’s model. They practice this with a somewhat-fake, but mostly-real dataset on Starbucks’ growth over the years, and then apply the 5 V’s to their own project ideas.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-AP-13, 3A-DA-10, 3A-DA-11, 3A-DA-12, 3A-IC-25

Lesson 1.6: Building a Survey for Data Collection

In this lesson, students will create a Google Form to collect data. Additionally, they will learn about some basic data cleaning issues and solutions, and how to plan a sample to represent a larger population.

  • CSTA Standards: 3A-AP-13, 3A-AP-21, 3A-DA-9, 3A-DA-10, 3A-DA-12, 3A-IC-25

CSTA Standards Covered in Unit 1

Data & Analysis:

  • 3A-DA-09: Translate between different bit representations of real-world phenomena, such as characters, numbers, and images.
  • 3A-DA-10: Evaluate the tradeoffs in how data elements are organized and where data is stored.
  • 3A-DA-11: Create interactive data visualizations using software tools to help others better understand real-world phenomena.
  • 3A-DA-12: Create computational models that represent the relationships among different elements of data collected from a phenomenon or process.
  • 3B-DA-06: Select data collection tools and techniques to generate data sets that support a claim or communicate information.

Impacts of Computing:

  • 3A-IC-24: Evaluate the ways computing impacts personal, ethical, social, economic, and cultural practices.
  • 3A-IC-25: Test and refine computational artifacts to reduce bias and equity deficits.
  • 3A-IC-29: Explain the privacy concerns related to the collection and generation of data through automated processes that may not be evident to users.
  • 3A-IC-30: Evaluate the social and economic implications of privacy in the context of safety, law, or ethics.

Algorithms & Programming:

  • 3A-AP-13: Create prototypes that use algorithms to solve computational problems by leveraging prior student knowledge and personal interests.
  • 3A-AP-21: Evaluate and refine computational artifacts to make them more usable and accessible.

Useful Links

API Can Code is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)