# Reflections on Data Gems at a Middle School Summer Program - Full STEAM Ahead!
**URL:** https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518
**Category:** Data Gems đź’
**Created:** [September 9, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518 "2024-09-09T14:55:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ada](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/ada)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/1 "2024-09-09T14:55:35Z")
Hi everyone, just wanted to share Data Gems in action!
My colleagues at pK-12 were running a middle school summer program called Full STEAM Ahead and I took advantage of the open-ended “choice time” to test out how Data Gems works with middle schoolers. (Also because it’s been a long time since I’ve worked with kids!)
I had a few questions I wanted to answer:
- Does Data Gems really tap into youth personal data interests? And how does that happen?
- How do the variety of examples I made support a diversity of interests?
- What might be some of the practical challenges for youth and for facilitators running this activity?
- Is it fun?
I had 10 youths for two days, ages 9-12. And all of them came back the second day, with an additional friend. I asked them to make wearable data trackers, kinda like friendship bracelets and keychains. The activity introduction was much shorter on the second day, since most of them were eager to get started.
Read the full reflection blog post here: [Reflection on Data Gems at Full STEAM Ahead](https://plix.mit.edu/news-updates/reflection-on-data-gems-at-full-steam-ahead)
Check out their creations below! Can you guess what they were tracking?
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### Author:  [@hardingn](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/hardingn)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2024, 1:11pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/2 "2024-09-13T13:11:47Z")
Ada, This is wonderful! So glad you had middle schoolers for your program.
I am looking forward to creating data gems for the right age group. It was a difficult concept for the 3rd graders I tried it with last June.
Did you write the yellow notes or are they the kids’ notes?
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### Author:  [@ada](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/ada)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2024, 3:34pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/3 "2024-09-13T15:34:23Z")
Hi Nicole,
Thanks! I’m glad it worked for the middle schoolers. I did the yellow notes to describe the examples I made, so learners can explore at their own pace. It’s kinda like a hands-on mini exhibit!
They did ask if they could take the examples, I’m glad I wrote “do not take” on them so I can keep using them later.
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### Author:  [@hardingn](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/hardingn)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/4 "2024-09-13T16:15:06Z")
Hi Ada,
Would you be willing to share images of your notes about the examples?
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### Author:  [@ada](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/ada)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/5 "2024-09-18T16:00:00Z")
Hi Nicole,
@hardingn
You can find more detailed reflections in this blog post: [Reflection on Data Gems at Full STEAM Ahead](https://plix.mit.edu/news-updates/reflection-on-data-gems-at-full-steam-ahead)
And here are separate photos so you can see the examples in more detail. I think they don’t quite show enough of a diverse range of ideas. Still thinking about other ideas that others have made.
Let me know if you’d like more detail about these!
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### Author:  [@hardingn](https://heyplix.mit.edu/u/hardingn)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://heyplix.mit.edu/t/reflections-on-data-gems-at-a-middle-school-summer-program-full-steam-ahead/1518/6 "2024-09-18T16:30:48Z")
Thank you, Ada!
These individual photos really show the process. I will share them with my co-workers and brainstorm how to plan a program and integrating your example notes.
Thanks again!