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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. 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. 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.

Location

All spatial data visualizations show location, but can come in a variety of forms. Even maps, which are often treated as a monolith, can look very different, depending on the function they are meant to fulfill. Below are brief descriptions and examples different kinds of maps. Most are forms of geographic maps -- geospatial data visualizations -- common to social studies. Also included are the topological maps, cosmographical maps, and anatomical maps that are important to recognize as other kinds of spatial data visualizations created to satisfy humans' desires to learn, explore, move, conquer, and control.

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Choropleth maps use colors, shades, or patterns to represent variables or ranges of variables within a particular geographic area (e.g., county, state, region, nation). This shaded map of French popular education created in 1826 by mathematician and politician Charles Dupin is considered the first choropleth map. It shows the number of inhabitants per male pupil, with the lighter shaded departments sending more boys to school than the darker ones.
Dot maps use equally sized dots, or sometimes equally sized symbols, to show data is distributed. The dot can represent one count or object, or a unit of objects (e.g., one dot=10 houses). By creating perhaps the most famous dot map of all time in 1854, John Snow was able to see where there were clusters of cholera cases in in the Soho district of London, which helped him trace the source to the Broad Street water pump.
Topological maps are diagrams in which features have been simplified so that only vital information remains and unnecessary detail has been removed. These maps lack scale, and distance and direction are subject to change and variation, but the relationship between points is maintained. The London Underground or Tube Map is one of the most iconic of all topological maps. This is Harry Beck's 1933 version of the map, which became the basis for future versions, including the one still used today.
Bubble maps use circles to represent data over a geographical region. The area of the circle is proportional to its value in the dataset. Featured in a Time Magazine article, this bubble map showing the 2016 election results by county was a liberal answer to election maps favored by the Donald Trump administration and his supporters. However, as Albert Cairo has pointed out, this map is just as misleading as the ones favored by those on the right.