Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) initiatives are helping countless organizations harnessand interpret the vast amount of information available in the world today. The explosion of BI&Ain industry has fueled the high demand for knowledge workers with advanced analytical skills. Thepurpose of this paper is to introduce a data visualization project tutorial for Information Systems(IS) education. The applied BI&A tutorial was designed to help students learn how to create andanalyze a heat map using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and SQL Server Reporting Services(SSRS). Students learn how to make decisions based on large amounts of data by presenting it invisual form. This tutorial exposes students to the decision-making power derived from datavisualization. Utilizing the 5E Instructional Model, the tutorial assists in the development of BI&Aprofessionals who can quickly make sense of mass amounts of data, identify trends buried withindata sets, and are skilled in making sound decisions that add value to organizations