Network science helps us understand many kinds of Big Data. Since the late 20th century it has been increasingly relevant to people's everyday life. Networks can help us to make sense of our increasingly complex world.
Work with school students and teachers in developing network science skills has demonstrated that it can be a powerful and motivating approach to understanding and theorising solutions to complex social, health and environmental problems. Network science research also provides opportunities to develop many of the skills, habits of mind and ideas that are not being addressed in extant curricula and teaching practice.
Consequently the network science community needs to develop accessible educational materials, tools and techniques. To initiate this process, one key question was posed: What should every person living in the 21st century know about networks by the time they finish secondary education? The result presented here - Network Literacy: Essential Concepts and Core Ideas - is truly a group effort, representing the distillation of the work of over 30 network science researchers, educators, teachers and students from across the world including Mason Porter from the Mathematical Institute in Oxford.