With the emergence of COVID-19, public interest in data visualization has surged. Data visualizations also, importantly, raised questions related to the data and the social context in which it occurred. Extending beyond but remaining connected to COVID-19, this context involved the racial and social inequality and economic disparities brought to the forefront, and thus deepened by the pandemic. Within this context of heightened public social and environmental consciousness and extensive creation and consumption of vital data visualizations, the authors recognized the role that data visualization might play in expanding social and environmental awareness and engagement. The authors posed the following questions: (1) How might art education empower students to engage with the issues directly affecting them and their communities?; and (2) How might data visualization play a central role in these endeavors? In the latter months of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic approached its peak in the United States, these questions informed a data-visualization curriculum unit developed and implemented in an intermediate school art classroom.