Teaching and Learning to Construct Data-Based Decision Trees Using Data Cards as the First Introduction to Machine Learning in Middle School Fleischer, Franz Yannik Podworny, Susanne Biehler, Rolf <jats:p>This study investigates how 11- to 12-year-old students construct data-based decision trees using data cards for classification purposes. We examine the students' heuristics and reasoning during this process. The research is based on an eight-week teaching unit during which students labeled data, built decision trees, and assessed them using test data. They learned to manually construct decision trees to classify food items as recommendable or not. They utilized data cards with a heuristic that is a simplified form of a machine learning algorithm. We report on evidence that this topic is teachable to middle school students, along with insights for refining our teaching approach and broader implications for teaching machine learning at the school level.</jats:p> International Association for Statistical Education 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 https://ris.uni-paderborn.de/record/55667 Fleischer FY, Podworny S, Biehler R. Teaching and Learning to Construct Data-Based Decision Trees Using Data Cards as the First Introduction to Machine Learning in Middle School. <i>Statistics Education Research Journal</i>. 2024;23(1). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v23i1.450">10.52041/serj.v23i1.450</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.52041/serj.v23i1.450 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1570-1824 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess