Don Buckley (@donbuckley) and I are collaborating with Dr. Sabrina Goldberg (7th Math Teacher) this week to discuss Data Visualization with her students for the next few days. Here is what we are doing with the students for the 3-day unit:

Show "Hans Rosling on HIV: New facts and stunning data visuals”
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_the_truth_about_hiv.html
(All Hans Rosling’s TED Talks here: http://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling.html)

Subsequent to our mini-unit, Don located this video to use too:

Reinforce:
The danger of the "single story" when describing Africa
The sheer amount of data being displayed in this one chart
What is being represented? (geography, chronology, % of people infected, population of country, income...)

Show Gapminder:
http://gapminder.org
Use web version (not desktop version) so we don't have to go around and enter the admin password for each machine, though we can consider putting desktop version on the image for next year

Go to Gapminder World link:
http://www.gapminder.org/world - "Wealth and Health of Nations"

Discuss and fill in a Google Spreadsheet with the following questions in columns:
Your Name
What is data?
What is the difference between data and information?
What is on the x-axis and y-axis?
What do the colors represent?
What information is on this chart?
What happens when you mouse over the chart?
What changes when you press PLAY?
Choose one country and explain what you notice (the trend, the numbers, the time elapse...)
List your choice for country, the y-axis, and the x-axis from the last column.
Choose a different country from the same continent and explain what you notice (the trend, the numbers, the time elapse...)
List your choice for country, the y-axis, and the x-axis from the last column.
Choose a different country from a different continent and explain what you notice (the trend, the numbers, the time elapse...)
List your choice for country, the y-axis, and the x-axis from the last column.

Fill in three additional columns of our own data to make into an infographic:
Your height in cm
Distance from school in meters from Google Maps (to compare with linear and logarithmic scales later)
Number of months have you been at The School
Number of pairs of shoes you own

Also talk about:
The basics of graphing - using Excel, Google Spreadsheet
Qualitative vs quantitative, types of graphs, scales of graphs
When to use a specific graph: bar, circle, line...
Logarithmic vs linear scale

Other sites for data visualization:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1749649/5-infographics-tools-for-business
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/datasets
http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/07/02/sports/soccer/facebook-worldcup.html
http://www.census.gov
http://www.nycgo.com/articles/nyc-statistics-page
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/maps/demo.html
http://show.mappingworlds.com/world
http://bedbugregistry.com http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/ruralatlas
http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/home/home.aspx
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/Map.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York
http://japanquakemap.com