WDS: Exploration Units Collection
calcore
July 25, 2026
Exploration Units are comprehensive, 2-3 week long curriculum units designed to build deep data literacy and statistical inquiry skills in middle school classrooms. Centered around authentic socioscientific datasets, these units provide bilingual (English/Spanish) student handouts, slides, and teacher lesson guides.
Intended Audience & Use Case: Designed for science, statistics, and social studies educators, as well as curriculum developers. They provide standard-aligned (NGSS and GAISE II) unit frameworks to help students construct computational data arguments about real-world social and ecological challenges.
Curriculum Themes Covered
- Wildfire Risk and Prevention: Analyzes regional wildfire patterns, frequency, and disproportionate socio-ecological impacts on vulnerable communities.
- Water Quality and Proximity: Investigates community water supply sources, pollution variables, and chemical level maps.
- COVID-19 Health Disparities: Examines public health statistics, spread trends, and regional equity gaps.
- What is Healthy? (Nutrition): Sourced from news and media, looking at food label metrics and nutritional data graphs.