Should We Be Learning About Data Science?

Absolutely. I’ve written about data science here before, but I can’t stress enough how beneficial it is to take a few classes and develop those skills. Being able to work with large data sets is so for plant genetics and breeding—and honestly, most majors. A few courses I would recommend are ENTM 242, which gives a great introduction to R and data analysis, and AGR 333 (having a little previous experience with R is beneficial for this course). You don’t have to become a programming genius but having the fundamental skills of taking raw data and being able to work and analyze it is worth taking the extra credits of data science classes. If you don’t want to take an entire course but are motivated to learn on your own, there are a ton of free online resources that can get you started on your data science journey.