Tag: NEWS

2/7/13 – Gerry Roe posted a comment to this article, asking for the data source on this infographic. The designer did not include the data, which in my opinion, renders the graphic useless. Ryann has not yet commented below. She’s busy with her other job and her graduate work.

I did some googling and found three tables with identical data, but none of those documents sited valid sources. I am leaving the graphic up as an example of the critical importance of the basic literacy practice, “Ask questions about the answers that you find.”dfw

Taxes are a constant debate among politics. Everyone wants lower taxes, but few people think about why taxes are necessary. Before you show this infographic, challenge each student to find five unique uses for tax money, and imagine what the world would be like without the government having that money.

This infographic shows that the US and Japan have the highest taxes in the world. Why do these two countries need such high taxes? What do each of the countries listed use their taxes on. What is their national debt like? How did they rack up these debts? Make sure your students understand why taxes are necessary, and brainstorm ways for the government to come up with the necessary funds without taxes.

Blog: http://visual.ly/world-tax-comparisons

In recent years, elections have been extremely close, the final results often not being known for days, and even weeks after the election. Recounts have been common, and debates over the true winner have lasted for months. This infographic takes an unbiased look at elections passed and shares the outcome of them.

This infographic takes every election since 1908, and shows how each state voted. It also uses pie charts to compare the electoral votes and the popular vote. The infographic goes a step farther and summarizes the issues in each election. This is a great summary of every election in this century, and would be a great resource for years to come.

Use this infographic to discuss with your students the history of the country and how this has affected elections. For instance, what does each political party stand for, and how people may have thought the candidate would help what was going on. Also, talk about what each president did, how happy people were with them, and how this lead to reelection or not.

Blog: http://visual.ly/us-elections-100-years

There are many types of natural disasters that can damage the way we live. Between storms from the sky, and a constantly moving Earth, it is nearly impossible to escape these natural disasters. A tsunami is one that is particularly devastating. It begins with movement of Earth, and ends with a large wave, both with massive destruction.

This infographic shares the basics of tsunami’s. There are three main ways that a tsunami starts, an earthquake, a landslide or a volcano. The infographic does a great job of showing how these three can begin a tsunami. The infographic then shows characteristics of a tsunami.

With your students, do research on tsunamis. What are some ways that tsunamis can be predicted? How long in advance can they be predicted? Research devastating tsunamis throughout history. Do research to see if you all can come up with preventative measures.

Blog: http://visual.ly/tsunami-smart

This infographic is fairly intense. It is a time lapse map of all the earthquakes that occurred in 2011. It was created by someone in Asia, and has I think Japanese writing on it, so much of it can’t be read, but it still is very interesting. It is a great way to show this kind of information.

When studying plate tectonics, show a portion of this to your students. Have you students do research on parts of this video, each group of students taking a month, or a couple of months, and do research on the earthquakes that occurred during that time period. See if there is any correlation between them, what kind of damage was done, if anything was learned from that particular earthquake. See if your students can find some type of pattern, or lack there of.

Show your students earthquakes that happened in new areas. For instance, in the summer of 2011, there was an earthquake in Virginia that was felt all the way down in Raleigh, NC. What caused an earthquake here? What movement of the plates caused earthquakes that happened elsewhere? Have your students create infographics sharing this information.

Blog: http://visual.ly/world-earthquakes-2011-visualization-map

I believe that this infographic is mistitled. I believe that it should be titled Is Barack Obama the Next President. But in light of the presidential debate this evening, I thought an election related infographic would be a good idea.

This infographic does a great job of visualizing the electoral votes. It uses balloons to show the number of electoral votes each president possesses based on then current predictions. It is also interactive, the balloons are sized based on the number of electoral votes, and you can scroll over them to see the state it represents and how strongly they are for each candidate. This would be a great method to use for other infographics based on numbers.

After the presidential debate, which focused on the economy, have you students try to push judgements aside, and get down to what was said, and create an infographic about it. Try to find several key components of the debate and find facts on what the candidates said. Romney’s campaign has been plagued with having been “too vague.” The debate did force him to be more specific on his plans. Try to find these details, of both candidates, as well as evidence based on their lives as politicians, and compare and contrast them. For instance, where and when has Romney cut spending while governor, and how has he improved education. How has Obama’s spending increases helped the country, and how has he improved education. Try to teach your students how to form opinions based on facts, and how to show these facts by using an infographic.

Blog: http://visual.ly/barack-obama-president?view=true

Part of teaching economics is preparing your students for being good at managing their money today, and tomorrow. Part of this is real estate. Now, according to this infographic, it is a good idea to go ahead and buy today, if you are able. Unfortunately, it is doubtful that any of your students are in the position to do such a thing. But it would still be a good idea to go into the basics of what is involved in purchasing a home, so that students are familiar with it when the time comes.

This infographic begins by saying that this is the best time to buy a home. The market is projected to continue a slight decline and stabilize, and then begin going back up next year. Interest rates are in the same boat. It said that interest rates should be between 4-5%. Unfortunately, most of your student’s won’t be in a position to purchase for another 10-15 years, when the market is supposed to be high again.

As well as this information, it goes into the 5 most, and least promising markets. With your students, discuss why these changes are going to occur, and why the markets are projected as such. Do a mock home buying experience as part of a mock life. Look on websites like Zillow and Realestate.com and search for properties. If anyone you know is purchasing a home, or you have recently, go through the inspection. Ask an inspector, real estate agent, and mortgage agent to come in and talk about what needs to be considered. Ask your students to create wish lists, and see where they break with their lists. And finally, see what the final outcome is. Did they get the home of their dreams? Did they get a fixer upper? Most importantly, are they happy?

Blog: http://visual.ly/real-estate-market-today

When one thinks of Ireland, one often thinks of drinking, dancing, and green little men. But, in fact, the Irish have invented many major things that changed the world. Ten of them are outlined in this infographic. Some of the ones that may involve  a great deal of discussion include the submarine, color photographic, the tank, and splitting the atom.

Every country and culture have invented things to help their daily lives, some say beginning with fire. While our imaginations cannot fathom what will come next, inventions are by no means finished. Challenge your students to imagine life without some of these inventions. Do research on them, and see if someone else was working on something similar, and see the differences. Would the differences have made a greater impact? What would our lives be like without color photography? How would World War 2 have been different without the tank?

Challenge your students to invent something new. Have them think about their daily lives. What would be the best way to improve their lives? Have your students do as much research as possible to write down as many logistics as possible. Who knows, they may end up being able to create it and impact the next generation.

Blog: http://www.goireland.com/craic/10-irish-inventions.htm

Since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, our air quality has gone downhill significantly. Before this revolution, we used human and animal power, as well as water and other natural resources to slowly create what we needed. It was a slow process, but there were very few harmful by products. With the creation of the engine, people realized that they could create things much faster. But it took quite some time to realize exactly how harmful all of these by products were to us, long-term. It took quite some time for us to develop the technology to measure pollutants in the air, and realize that chemicals remained that we couldn’t see.

This infographic, found on Good.is, shows the toxic 20, or the top 20 air polluted states. Is your state on the list? It also shows the health risks involved in breathing in these chemicals. It’s no wonder that health problems have significantly increased in recent years. And finally, it shows the main ways this pollution gets into our air.

Discuss with your students the causes and implications of air pollution. Do they think it is worth it, to be able to have all the amenities we have today? How is there generation going to suffer 20, 30 or 40 years from now, or the next generation? What can we do to stop and even reverse this pollution?

Blog: http://goo.gl/LQ2dR

While your students may not be writing bestsellers anytime soon, this may still interest some of your more literary students. HipType compile this data on the content, genre, and readers of books, and may just have created a formula (or at least a starting point), for a successful book. Of course in my opinion the best books are the classics written by those who loved writing and who didn’t set out to write a bestseller, but to each his own.

According to this infographic, the average bestseller is 375 pages, with a female protagonist. The genre is literature and cost $3.99. An average of 30% of people will stop reading a book by page 50, so it is important to snag them by this point, and those over the age of 40 are more likely to read the longer books and spend more time reading in a single session.

What do your students think about this information? What has changed in recent decades to make shorter books more prominent among recent generations (possibly video games). What can writers do to make sure someone sticks with a book beyond page 50? What makes your students stick with a book beyond page 50? Would your students be more likely to read more with an ereader? Or do they like holding a book in their hands?

Blog: http://goo.gl/UKZvo

 

Ignite Social Media does a report on social media networks every year, and based on the 2012 research, this infographic was created. This infographic is a great example of a well laid out infographic. Using various font sizes and font colors, it categorizes the various information shared. It also shares a wide variety of information and by doing this, it doesn’t jumble the information up. Suggest to your students that when they are creating an infographic, organize the information in just a few categories (three is the best), with just a few (once again three is the best, but maybe four or five) sub categories.

This infographic does a great job of comparing various demographics and their social media use. According to this infographic, men and women use social networks equally, but women use Pinterest most, while men us Dribbble. It also shares what sites are used by those under the age of 10, over the age of 65, those who make over $150,000, and those with a graduate degree. It then continues by sharing the current rising and falling trends of various social media sites.

Ask your students to do research on the social media sites, and try to figure out why some are doing well and some aren’t. For instance, what makes Pinterest so wonderful? Why is Facebook still thriving and Myspace and Friendster failing? How much do they think is the novelty and the use of the various sites, and how much is it just trends?

Blog: http://goo.gl/clg3o