Blockly-DS: Blocks Programming for Data Science with Visual, Statistical, Descriptive and Predictive Analysis

Abstract

Interest in data science has been growing across industries - both STEM and non-STEM. Non-STEM students often have difficulties with programming and data analysis tools. These entry barriers can be minimized, and these concepts can be easily absorbed when using visual tools. Thus, for this specific audience, the use of visual tools has been essential for teaching data science. Several of these tools are available, but they all have limitations. This work presents Blockly-DS: a new tool capable of assisting in teaching data science to a non-STEM audience. The Blockly-DS tool is being tested in two Brazilian higher education institutions, one, IBMEC, a business undergraduate university, and the other, FIAP, a STEM school that offers an MBA as well as corporate and undergraduate courses. The preliminary results presented in this article refers to a validation with two groups of training sessions for junior financial analysts of a major Brazilian bank in partnership with FIAP.