The Effectiveness of Data Science as a Means to Achieve Proficiency in Scientific Literacy

Data Science courses are becoming more prevalent in recent years. Increasingly more universities are offering individual courses and majors in the field of Data Science. This study evaluates data science education as a means to become proficient in scientific literacy. The results demonstrate how the educational goals of a Data Science course meet the scientific literacy criteria in regards to the process of science. Based on the commonality between data science and scientific literacy courses, the paper concludes that a data science course can be used as an alternative way for students in any major to gain scientific literacy skills.