Data Launchpads

Data Launchpads are highly interactive documents created with the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP).

They are designed to provide teachers and students with an easy and flexible “on-ramp” to working with large public datasets.

The materials below are all products of Writing Data Stories, a collaboration between the University of California Berkeley, North Carolina State University, and the Concord Consortium funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF IIS-1900606).


Learn more about CODAP with this online guide, or download this PDF intro!


Data Launchpads Curriculum includes:

  • Key background information about the where and how the dataset was made
  • Context-setting multimedia to highlight the kinds of questions students can ask with the data
  • Activators that encourage students to consider their personal connections to the dataset
  • A gentle intro to CODAP showing the most useful tools for working with a given dataset (e.g. plots, bar graphs, maps, data filtering tools)
  • A full, analyzable dataset from public sources, adapted to be as easy to work with as possible
  • A list of useful next steps that help start exploring the dataset for themselves


Data Launchpads

Each launchpad links to a live, editable file on the CODAP platform

Click through the file’s “Story Builder” windows to view lessons

Spotify/Billboard Hot 100 (1958-2021)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (IIS-1900606). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.