Integrating Engineering Principles in Data Literacy Workshops for Primary Education

Data literacy is an essential skill in today's and future world. Children should be introduced to data literacy concepts in ways appropriate to their age, using real-world data examples and hands-on experiences. As part of the Erasmus+ DIRECTORS project, three workshops (each having two sessions) for children aged 8-10 (ISCED level 1) are currently being developed and implemented in selected primary schools in Croatia and the Netherlands. The first cycle of workshops was completed in November 2024, and the workshops - together with accompanying open educational resources - are now being improved for the final implementation in April 2025. This paper focuses on the engineering principles “hidden” in our DIRECTORS data literacy workshops. While we primarily emphasize data literacy and digital skills, engineering elements are intertwined throughout our whole program and in all data lifecycle phases: collection, processing, analysis, visualization, as well as critical thinking, and drawing conclusions. We give an overview of the engineering principles present in data lifecycle phases of each workshop. We describe which activities were used to implement them, and we discuss the importance of each principle in our workshops, making small steps to a more successful, albeit somewhat “hidden”, engineering education.