Data Speak Louder Than Words

This course teaches students to use data to build and communicate arguments about the world that are harder to dismiss than words. Students can use what they learn to pursue their own interests with data, whether that means judging a team's season, checking a claim in the news, or seeing who a city's bus routes serve. The course develops three ways of reasoning with data: critical, inferential, and computational thinking. It assumes no programming experience. Students learn Python and use it to explore and visualize real data, reason about uncertainty, and build and check prediction models such as linear regression. Many examples come from civic and social questions, and the course examines how data analysis can mislead or cause harm. Students use generative AI (GenAI) as a learning partner. Before lecture in most weeks, they work through a guided exploration with a GenAI tool, so class time goes to applying and discussing the material. Students then show what they have learned on their own, through short checks in class and by talking through their project work with course staff. This is also a good first course for students considering a major or minor in data science. Effective Summer 2026, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy, Social Inquiry 1.