We’re declaring this week Infographics Week on The Learning Network because we know how important it is for students to be able to read and interpret visual representations of information — and because The New York Times consistently creates useful and elegant examples that we think teachers across the curriculum should know about.
Not only do charts, graphs and maps show up on standardized tests of all kinds, but whiteboard technology has made the graphic depiction of information that much more useful and ubiquitous in classrooms.
We have a lot to say about this topic and scores of interesting examples to show you, so we’re breaking it down over five days:
Monday: What infographics are, and some places in and outside The Times to see good ones
Tuesday: The best Times infographics for social studies, history, civics and geography
Wednesday: The best Times infographics for science and health
Thursday: The best Times infographics for English language arts and fine arts
Friday: How students can learn to create their own infographics, with guest blogger Diana Laufenberg, a teacher in Philadelphia
Let us know how you teach with infographics, and please add your own examples to our lists each day!
Places to Start Learning About Infographics
Infographics in General:
- Talk to the Newsroom | Graphics Director Steve Duenes
Learn about how Bill Gates got interested in focusing on third world disease after seeing a Times infographic, how a Times graphic designer paced the dimensions of Saddam Hussein’s spider hole in Iraq to create a sketch that became a 3-D diagram of the compound in the next day’s paper, and more. - Talk to the Newsroom | Interactive News Collaborative
Learn about good interactive design and how the creative process is challenged by a breaking news schedule — and get advice if you’re an aspiring journalist/programmer. - Communication Nation blog | What is an infographic?
- VisualLiteracy.org | A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
- B.B.C. video | Understanding Informational Charts
- Times Topics page | Edward Tufte
Infographics in Education:
- Langwitches Blog | Infographics- What? Why? How?
- Larry Ferlazzo | The Best Sources For Interactive Infographics
- Online University Data | 17 Eye-Popping Infographics on e-Learning
Places to Start on The Learning Network
Our collection Great Ways to Teach ANY Day’s Times has a number of graphic organizers students can use to begin recording and analyzing almost any kind of data. Here are two that are especially useful:
- Activity Sheet: A Graph Is Worth a Thousand Words, or At Least 50
Students write a textual explanation of a graph clipped from The Times
Teacher Instructions | Student Sheet - A Graphic Interpretation
Students use data provided in a Times article to create a graph or chart
Teacher Instructions|Student Sheet
Places to Start on NYTimes.com
We’ll be giving you subject-specific examples all week, but here are good spots to find interesting data visualization in general in The Times:
- New York Times Data Visualization Lab
Create visual representations of data and information using the “Many Eyes” technology from IBM Research.
Example: Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address - Multimedia Index
Example: Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf - Charles M. Blow is The Times’s visual Op-Ed columnist.
Example: Justin Bieber for President - Charles M. Blow’s By the Numbers blog
Example: Chart Abuse - Abstract City Blog
Christoph Niemann’s work is more illustration than infographic, but we thought readers would want to know about it anyway.
Example: I Lego N.Y.
Sources Around the Web for Interesting Infographics
We’ve chosen one or two classroom- or kid-friendly examples from each of the following, though in some cases the graphic was made by the authors of the site or blog itself, and in others the purpose of the site or blog is simply to collect good examples from around the Web.
- flowingdata.com
Example: Understanding Shakespeare with Visualization
Example: How to Win Rock-Paper-Scissors Every Time - Information Is Beautiful
Example: International Number Ones - Good Magazine infographics
Example: The Most Controversial Books in America - Cool Infographics
Example: Time Travel in Popular Movies and TV - The Infographics Showcase
Example: Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World - Fast Company infographics
Example: Who Drives Worse, Teens, or Seniors? - Visual Complexity
Example: The Geotaggers’ World Atlas - Infographics News
Example: BBC Dimensions - Nigel Holmes | Explanation Graphics
Example: Relative Sizes of the US Surplus and Debt - Information Aesthetics
Example: U.S. Mood throughout the Day Inferred from Twitter
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