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Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies: An Interactive Professional Development Tool Why teach data literacy in social studies? Not only is data literacy required by state standards and included in standardized assessments, it is important for understanding core social studies disciplines. This module addresses the role that data visualizations play in social studies standards, assessments, and texts. It also provides links to resources that can be used to support data literacy as a component of disciplinary literacy. How do students learn with data visualizations? Reading data visualizations in print and online social studies texts can improve students' overall comprehension and quality of reasoning. And there is evidence to suggest that reading data visualizations helps students better understand historical and geographic context, multiple causation, and change over time — all important concepts for students to grasp in social studies subject areas. However, students may face significant challenges in trying to make sense of different kinds of data visualizations. This section provides insight into both benefits and challenges of reading timelines, maps, and graphs and charts. How should students analyze data visualizations in social studies? The challenges that data visualizations present, coupled with their prevalence in social studies texts, standardized assessments, in online social studies resources, and as sources of information in society, suggest that teaching with and about data visualizations in social studies is essential. This module provides guidance for how teachers can support students' data literacy for social studies. Index of Lesson Plans This page contains a list of the minimal manuals and lessons found on this website. Minimal manuals are designed to be adapted to different grade levels and do not have a grade designation associated with them. Lesson plans are organized according to the school level for which they are designed. However, many of these lessons can be adapted for different grade levels.

What kinds of data visualizations will students encounter in social studies?

Information can be visualized in multiple ways, from bar graphs to scatterplots, choropleth maps to distribution maps, timelines to time series. Designers can choose from an array of graphical elements such as points, lines, or icons used to represent data, and multiple aesthetic attributes such as color, shape, and size. Furthermore, designers can apply multiple combinations of titles, legends, and explanatory text to provide context for a data visualization. Given the almost dizzying array of data visualizations students may encounter in social studies, it is helpful to place them in categories related to the types of questions they will help us answer.

In the previous module, you looked at a variety of data visualizations, including those you found in textbooks, online, and on this website. It is clear that information can be visualized in multiple ways, from bar graphs to scatterplots, choropleth maps to distribution maps, timelines to time series. Designers can choose from an array of graphical elements such as points, lines, or icons used to represent data, and multiple aesthetic attributes such as color, shape, and size. Furthermore, designers can apply multiple combinations of titles, legends, and explanatory text to provide context for a data visualization.[1]

Given the almost dizzying array of data visualizations students may encounter in social studies, it is helpful to place them in categories related to the types of questions they will help us answer. For example, studying social studies often has us wondering where something happened, or how two places relate to each other in space. Spatial data visualizations can help us answer such questions. Of course, we also ask a lot of questions about when an event occurred in history. Temporal data visualizations — those that show us change or developments over time — can be helpful for such inquiries.[2]

The following sections provide an overview of four broad categories of data visualizations that are useful in social studies. If you follow the link for each category, it will lead you to a page that provides further information about types and functions of data visualizations included in the category, and shows some examples related to social studies content.

Contents of this path:

Spatial data visualizations help us answer "where" questions. They show us locations, allow us to see patterns, distribution, movements, or relationships, or help us make comparisons. Most of the spatial data visualizations students will encounter in social studies are maps, but not all maps are the same, and not every map fulfills the same function. In addition, some of the spatial data visualizations students might encounter represent humans' efforts to map out stars and planets, caverns and tunnels, or parts of the human body.