Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies: An Interactive Professional Development Tool

Finding Data and Data Visualizations Online

Data visualizations can help students better understand the social studies content you teach. This page contains multiple resources to help you identify data visualizations connected to social studies content. First, on the left is a link to another page with datasets that students can use to explore data and construct their own data visualizations. The bulk of the page is an annotated list of data-heavy websites may help you find the right data or data visualizations to support the content you're teaching. Below each website is a link to lesson plans using the website resources. Finally, at the bottom of the page are links to pages with Michigan social studies standards and connections to specific data visualization or data visualization sites that will help meet the standards. 

AFTER BABYLON
The After Babylon project provides several different data visualizations, each providing unique insight into "living" human languages and their relationships. It would be particularly useful for teaching cultural diffusion and exchange in a world geography or history course. Features include:AFTER BABYLON ACTIVITY

                  
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)The mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to protect the health safety of the United States. Some areas they focus on are infectious diseases and conditions, healthy living, traveler’s health, and emergency preparedness. Probably most useful for teaching data literacy in social studies is the website's Data & Statistics page, which includes the following and can be used to support research projects or lessons on health and health disparities:CDC Activity COMING SOON


CENTER FOR INFORMATION & RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT (CIRCLE)The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) is a non-partisan, independent research organization focused on youth civic engagement in the United States. They conduct research on youth participation, and try to leverage their research to improve opportunities for all young people to acquire and use the skills and knowledge they need to meaningfully participate in civic life.The website features:CIRCLE ACTIVITY

CENTRE FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC HISTORYThe Centre for Global Economic History, in Utrecht, Netherlands, researches long term evolution of the world economy, including institutions, economic growth, and inequality. The CGEH has viewable ongoing and completed projects, where you can explore their goals, hypotheses, data sets, conclusions, and virtually everything that is part of the project. Projects and site features of particular interest to social studies teachers are:Centre for Global Economic History Activity COMING SOON


CIA WORLD FACTBOOK

The CIA World Factbook provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues. Useful features include:
•    Dozens of world and regional maps, including a population distribution map of the African continent that teachers can use for development of map reading skills.  
•    Travel Facts, which provides country-specific data such as major languages, religions, and other cultural practices, which can be used to generate graphs or annotated maps. Additionally, there is a wealth of information on each country present, including a country map and a country map locater.
•    One Page Summaries of every country, providing information on the Government, Geography, Economy, and People & Society.
•    Country Comparisons pages allow one to compare countries based on the available data in areas such as geography, people and society, economy, energy, communications, transportation, military and secuirty. This is useful for creating comparative graphs and maps. 
•    Spy Kids, including an aerial analysis game that uses GIS images to encourage critical thinking and problem solving. 

CIA WORLD FACTBOOK ACTIVITY


CURRENT RESEARCH IN DIGITAL HISTORY (CRDH)Current Research in Digital History (CRDH) offers exemplary data-based historical arguments and interpretations for social studies teachers and students. CRDH an annual open-access, peer-reviewed publication of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University with the primary purpose of encouraging and publishing scholarship in digital history. The platform for CRDH was chosen specifically to allow for publication of visualizations and graphics with accompanying narratives, as well as associated data or code. Teachers can use the scholarship from CRDH to demonstrate the role that data visualizations can play in historical inquiry and evidence-based arguments.
CURRENT RESEARCH IN DIGITAL HISTORY ACTIVITY

DATA USAData USA is a website designed to help users understand and visualize critical issues facing the United States in areas like jobs, skills, industry, and more. Data USA provides public U.S. Government data to help users conduct their own analyses and construct conclusions about the United States. There are numerous features on the website that can be helpful when teaching social studies.DATA USA ACTIVITY


DIGITAL HARLEM
The Digital Harlem website is an interactive site that works to explain and showcase everyday life in the city of Harlem from 1915-1930. The website has a companion blog that includes a section on Teaching Digital Harlem. This essay provides some useful tips for navigating the website to reveal the complexity and richness of the area, and some ideas for student activities. The central feature of the website is a map of Harlem, which students can click on to explore changing boundaries of Black Harlem between 1920 and 1930. To the right of the map, students can select different map themes, each of which reveals an essay to provide background information. To the left of the map, students can select different events, places, or people to get a glimpse of daily life and culture. Below the map is a timeline slider that displays when an event occurred or when a location was used as a specific place. At the top of the page are buttons to explain how to use each of the features, as well as a link to the companion blog. 
Digital Harlem Activity COMING SOON


DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY OF AMERICA
The Digital Public Library of America contains a plethora of images, texts, videos and sounds from across U.S. libraries, archives and museums. It also contains a number of maps, graphs, and timelines. For example, many of the Primary Source Sets (which are accompanied by ideas for how to use the Primary Source Sets in classrooms), contain data visualizations. You can find maps in the section on the California Gold Rush, the Cotton Gin and Expansion of Slavery, or the Great Migration — just to name a few. The Online Exhibitions page can be used to investigate important stories about the United States through sources and accompanying narratives, and many of these also contain data visualizations. Examples include Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal and Torn in Two: Mapping the American Civil War. Students can also advance their research skills by utilizing the search feature from where they can discover photographs, maps, speeches and texts from all periods of American history. Teachers who are looking for data visualizations to teach can simply use search terms like "map," "graph," or "timeline" to find a long list of potential instructional resources.
Digital Public Library of America Activity COMING SOON


EXPLORABLE EXPLANATIONS

Explorable Explanations is an interactive learning site that caters to many subjects. The most pertinent topic on the site to social science teachers is civics. Once you arrive at the homepage, scroll down until you see the title 'Play Explorable Explanations in specific subjects:' with colorful boxes below. Then, click on the yellow 'civics' button to see the interactive tools that explain how the nation's democratic processes work. The explanations are simple and concise, making concepts such as the voting system, electoral college and district representation easy to understand.
Explorable Explanations Activity COMING SOON


THE FALLEN OF WORLD WAR IIThe Fallen of World War II is an incredibly effective 18-minute "data documentary" that uses an animated data visualization and an interactive tool to demonstrate the extent of the casualties of World War II and the impact that the war had on the world. History teachers can use this visualization to help students grasp the devastation of the war, and to understand the realities of the statistics they might read in a textbook. In the video, students can view:Fallen of World War II Activity COMING SOON


FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS The website for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis offers a treasure trove of economic education resources, many of which incorporate economic data and data visualizations.  In fact, a filtering tool allows teachers to select resources specifically for social studies and/or data literacy, as well as the grade level and concept they're teaching. The site also offers: FRED Activity COMING SOON


FIVE·THIRTY·EIGHT

FiveThirtyEight focuses on opinion poll analyses in politics, science, economics, popular culture, and sports. The website was originally created by Nate Silver and is the property of ABC News. It features blogs and articles that change according to popular topics in the news, and often incorporate data visualizations, offering an opportunity for students to study how people incorporate data into arguments about contemporary political topics. The right side of the homepage includes interactive data visualizations for users and there is an entire section with regularly updated polling data for students to analyze and evaluate. 
FiveThirtyEight Activity COMING SOON


FLOWINGDATA
FlowingData is centered on using data visulizations to explore and analyze current news topics. The 'Projects' page on the site hosts a plethora of interactive graphics ranging from charts and graphs to maps and timelines. Teachers will find the data visulizations present on the site relevant to U.S. history and civics topics. The 'Tutorials' page includes presentations with explanations on how to create, analyze and understand different data visulizations. This is a great resource for teaching students how to create their own data visualizations as it has an easy-to-follow format. It should be noted that to access most of the tutorials, the site requires a paid membership subscription. Step-by-step self-guided courses are also available through membership only.
FlowingData Activity COMING SOON


GAPMINDERGapminder is an online tool useful for teaching world history, including investigations of contemporary global issues. Students can use the website to help them begin the inquiry process by asking questions about world issues, and they can gather, analyze, interpret, and display evidence. The website has an abundance of resources, includingGAPMINDER ACTIVITY


THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Gilder Lehrman is an institutional archive of American history. The site contains a wide range of historical artifacts that range from 1493 to the end of the twentieth century. Most pertinent to social science teachers are their history resources. Teachers can create a free account to access all features present on the site. When you log onto the homepage, you will see a tab right under the site's banner titled 'History Resources'. Once you have navigated to this page, you will notice that you can browse resources based on historical time period or topics in American history. As you scroll down the page, you will see the types of resources available. The 'Spotlight On: Primary Source' provides many data visulizations students can use to better understand the assigned topic at hand. Additionally, the 'Teaching Resource' box contains infographics that teachers can use to explain historical concepts in their classrooms.
Gilder Lehrman Activity COMING SOON  


GOOGLE EARTHGoogle Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D representation of Earth using primarily satellite imagery. It maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and GIS data onto a 3D globe, allowing users to see cities and landscapes from various angles. Google Earth is an amazing tool for social studies teachers that allows students to literally and figuratively expand their worldviews.  Not only can students explore the planet from space and learn about physical and political geography, but they can also use the street view feature to see places at ground level. Useful features include: GOOGLE EARTH ACTIVITY FOR WORLD GEOGRAPHY
GOOGLE EARTH ACTIVITY FOR WORLD HISTORY
GOOGLE EARTH ACTIVITY FOR U.S. HISTORY

INDIAN OCEAN IN WORLD HISTORYIndian Ocean in World History is intended for use by middle and high school teachers and students in connection with the surveys of world history, geography and cultures that are required by nearly every state's academic standards in social studies. The site contains a series of interactive maps that address major eras in world history and allow students to explore documents, trade goods, artifacts, and travelers exchanged across the Indian Ocean, distinguishing the region as a critical hub of activity and cultural exchange throughout world history.

Indian Ocean in World History Activity COMING SOON  


INTERACTIVE WWI TIMELINE

The Interactive WWI Timeline is an interactive website that showcases the events that preceded, occurred during and after WWI. The timeline displays the event's name, start and end dates as well as a short annotation on the event. Each description includes an image, video, artifact, quote or other useful visuals to further understand the event. One can click the arrow button to the right to move forward or the arrow buttom to the left to move back in the timeline. Right below the event display is a timeline ruler that pinpoints the exact date of events. One can scroll through this slider to locate and access specific events.

Interactive WWI Timeline Activity COMING SOON


MAPPING AMERICAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTSMapping American Social Movements produces and displays free interactive maps showing the historical geography of dozens of social movements that have influenced American life and politics since the late 19th century, including radical movements, civil rights movements, labor movements, women's movements, and more. Using the links on the lefthand side of the homepage, teachers and students can access stories, maps, and other data visualizations from several categories: 1870’s-1930’s, Black Freedom Movements, Chicanx/ Latinx Movements, Women’s Movements, 1960’s-70’s Movements, Labor and Radical Press, and Recent Movements. Each project contained on the website not only provides useful information for social studies teachers to use in the inquiry process, but also a vision of projects students can create individually or collaboratively.
Mapping American Social Movements Activity COMING SOON

MAPPING HISTORY
The Mapping History website is an interactive site that explains and displays graphical images of historical events in America, Europe, Latin America and Africa.Mapping History Activity COMING SOON


METROCOSMMetrocosm is a collection of maps and data visualization projects, created and run by Max Galka, whose goal is to make data more accessible and understandable, and “to make sense of the world through numbers.” The website includes a variety of useful resources for social studies, including:Metrocosm Activity COMING SOON


NEW YORK TIMES LEARNING NETWORKThe New York Times Learning Network offers abundance of teaching resources including several that are relevant to data literacy instruction in social studies. It's worth taking some time to scour all of their resources, but highlights include:New York Times Activity COMING SOON


OUR WORLD IN DATAOur World in Data is an online resource that provides free access to 3529 charts across 297 topics. Their mission is to provide “research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.” Features include:HOW HAS THE WORLD CHANGED OVER TIME? WEBSITE ACTIVITY


PEOPLE MOVIN
The People Movin website is an interactive site that showcases migration patterns for countries around the world.People Movin Activity COMING SOON


PEW RESEARCH CENTERPew Research Center is a nonpartisan resource that conducts public opinion polling, media content analysis, demographic research, and other social science research. Their mission is to inform the public about issues, attitudes, and trends in a transparent, non-biased way. The website is focused on politics and polls in the United States, containing sections on U.S. Politics, Media & News, Social Trends, Religion, Internet & Tech, Science, Hispanics, Global, and Methods. While mostly pertaining to current events, articles can be found from the past, and many of the Pew studies use historical data and polls as comparisons to today. Notable features include:PEW RESEARCH CENTER ACTIVITY 


POPULATION EDUCATIONPopulation Education is a national program that develops curriculum for students to help them understand human population trends and the impacts that these trends have on the environment. They integrate population information into natural and social science subjects, providing many classroom resources.POPULATION EDUCATION ACTIVITY


SLAVE VOYAGESSlave Voyages is a digital memorial that allows users to explore the dispersal of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic world and raises questions about the largest slave trades in history, offering access to the documentation available to answer them.A "SLOW REVEAL" GRAPH WITH SLAVEVOYAGES.ORG

SOCIAL EXPLORER
Social Explorer is a fantastic website that allows users to visualize and interact with data, and create maps, charts, reports and downloads. There are hundreds of thousands of built-in data indicators related to demography, economy, health, politics, environment, crime and more. Full use of the site requires a paid subscription, but there are plenty of great features with the basic version. These features include a Maps section with data maps on elections, crime, health and more, and a Tables section that allows users to select variables from the U.S. Census and generate tables for exploration and analysis. There is also a Teach and Learn section with several cool features, include Lecture Launchers, a collection of data-based activities to launch inquiry and discussion around topics like gerrymandering and slavery, and Data Snacks, which has dozens of data maps on topics like work commutes and Native America population. 
Social Explorer Activity COMING SOON

TABLEAU PUBLICTableau Public is a free resource version of Tableau that allows users to build their own interactive data visualizations and includes a Gallery that gives users the option to explore other users’ data visualizations. Many of these data visualizations could be useful for social studies instruction, and can be browsed easily by using the dropdown menu to filter according to topics like maps, sustainability, travel and transportation, politics and elections, or socioeconomics and geopolitics.
Tableau Public Activity COMING SOON


TIMEMAPSThe highlight of TimeMaps is an interactive spatiotemporal visualization called Atlas.  Users can view an interactive world map or zoom in to view regional maps. The world map starts at 3500 BCE, and at the bottom there is a scrolling timeline. When scrolled over, it goes all the way to present day, and the map changes to correspond with whichever time period you click. On the map itself users can hover over or click on a pin to get information about what's happening in the region during that time period. By scrolling through time, you can see societies and empires appear, grow, shrink, and disappear, providing a visual of change over time in a region or the world. 
TIMEMAPS ACTIVITY


UNDATAUNdata is a data service that provides international statistical databases for public use. The numerous data bases or tables collectively termed as datamarts cover topics like agriculture, crime, communication, development assistance, education, energy, environment, finance, gender, health, labor market, manufacturing, national accounts, population and migration, science and technology, tourism, transport, and trade. UN data provides specialized databases, popular statistical tables, and statistical profiles of countries and regions. This resource exists to educate users about the importance of statistics in policy and decision making. Run by the United Nations Statistics Division, this resource would help students (and teachers) learn about statistics and could assist with an evidence-based project.  
UNdata Activity COMING SOON


UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAUUnited States Census Bureau is responsible for producing and providing information and data regarding the American people and the United States economy.  Their website provides a wealth of information that can be incorporated into social studies classes.U.S. CENSUS BUREAU ACTIVITY


USA FACTSUSA Facts is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative providing comprehensive and understandable government data. They provide accessible analysis on US spending and outcomes in order to ground public debates in facts. Useful features on the website include: USA FACTS ACTIVITY
HOW HAS THE UNITED STATES CHANGED OVER TIME? WEBSITE ACTIVITY

US BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICSUS Bureau of Transportation Statistics is part of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the preeminent source of statistics on commercial aviation, multimodal freight activity, and transportation economics, and provides context to decision makers and the public for understanding statistics on transportation. Notable features for social studies teachers are:USDOT MAP GALLERY ACTIVITY


VISUALIZING ECONOMICSVisualizing Economics is a website designed by Catherine Mulbrandon who combines her expertise in economic and financial data to create and publish information graphics. She has data visualizations on various economic topics including income, taxes, gold, stocks, inflation, and housing, as well as data visualizations useful for world history. Several of the data visualizations are interactive and provide source information.
Visualizing Economics Activity COMING SOON


VOTING AMERICA
The Voting America website is an interactive site that displays patterns of voting in presidential, congressional and individual elections in the US through videos. One can see the timeline in which changes in voting occur.Voting America Activity COMING SOON


Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization that understands natural language. It is a unique engine for computing answers and providing knowledge. The site works by using its vast store of expert-level knowledge and algorithms to automatically answer questions, do analysis and generate reports. Topics most relevant to social studies teachers include 'People', 'Demographics & Social Statistics', 'History', 'Political Geography' and 'Economic Data'. Try asking it for "wealthiest nations" or "birth rates by country". 

WORLD-HISTORICAL DATAVERSE

This World-Historical Dataverse Project, run by the University of Pittsburgh, attempts to address the need for global historical data. The website provides links to both internal and external databases that may be useful for world historical research. They also have an external data portal page with links to projects like the Migration Data Hub and the Project on Religion and Economic Change.

World-Historical Data Activity COMING SOON


WORLD BANKThe goal of the World Bank is to decrease extreme global poverty to less than 3% in 2030 and promote shared prosperity by fostering income growth of the bottom 40% of every country. Most useful to social studies teachers is the website's section on Understanding Poverty, which includes the following:World Bank Activity COMING SOON


WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY
The World Digital Library site is a digital library that contains a wealth of primary sources that can be used to showcase the timeline of world history by highlighting important dates and events. The documents can be viewed in a timeline or interactive format.World Digital Library Activity COMING SOON


WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)The World Health Organization (WHO)  is an agency of the United Nations which is responsible for guiding international public health. The website provides access to a variety of health data and data visualizations that students can use for investigation of contemporary global issues. Features include:WHO Activity COMING SOON


WORLD WAR TWO TIMELINE EXPERIENCE
The World War Two Timeline Experience is an interactive website that displays and explains major events that occurred prior, during and after WWII. Most useful to social studies teachers are:World War Two Timeline Experience Activity COMING SOON


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