Using Callysto: Teacher Starter Kit

Start a discussion with your students about data science. Here's what we recommend:

1. Go to the Gapminder website. Gapminder is an organization which uses data to promote facts. They also have ready-made data visualizations on a variety of topics.
2. Go to Gapminder's “tools” page. This is where you can choose a variety of data visualizations.
3. After you choose a visualization, ask the students questions:

• What patterns do you notice in the data?
• What questions do you have about the information you see?
• What conclusions can be made from this data?

Data science skills, including data analysis and coding, can help you solve problems in a variety of subjects. These skills are also important when you’re looking for a job. Data science skills also help you spot misinformation online, such as misleading graphs.

We’re going to practice your data science skills using Callysto. Callysto uses something called “Jupyter notebooks”, which is an online platform used by many university classes to build and share live content. All Callysto learning modules use the Python programming language, which is also the programming language used by most data scientists.

Get students to log in to hub.callysto.ca with their Google or Microsoft account.

Provide students the link to the learning module they’ll be using.

We suggest students start with our Pets on Mars module if they're new to data science and Python programming.

Have you opened this learning module before, and get an error message when you try to open it now? If so, you may need to delete the copy of this learning module that’s in your Callysto Hub. Click here for instructions.

Help them get started with the learning module(s).

Explain the main parts of a Callysto learning module: markdown cells, code cells, the “run” function, etc. Please refer to the section above, “Get familiar with Callysto.”

The simplest way for students to send you their completed modules is to download it in Jupyter notebook file format (.ipynb). From there, they can email or upload it to a storage area of your choosing.

Video overview

Visual guide

• Click “File”
• Click “Download as”
• Select “Notebook (.ipynb)

When students send you their Callysto notebooks (i.e. as .ipynb files) here’s how you can upload to your Callysto Hub.

Video overview
(It's just over 2 minutes.)

Visual guide

A. Create a folder on your desktop, or a folder on your computer to save the notebooks.

B. Log into your Callysto Hub

C. Create a new folder

1. Click “New.”
2. Click “Folder.”
3. Your new folder will appear under the “Files” tab as “Untitled folder.”

D. Rename your folder

1. Click the box to the left of your folder.
2. Click “Rename.”
3. Type a name below “Enter a new directory name.”
4. Click “Rename.”

E. Upload the student notebooks

• When you’re in your newly-renamed folder, click “Upload.” This will open a pop-up box, where you can select the area you saved the student’s notebooks.