The Promise and Practice of Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies: A Companion Site

Finding Data and Data Visualizations Online

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 COMING SOON

CENTRE FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC HISTORY
The 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, and transnational issues. Useful features include:
•    Dozens of political, physical, and transportation maps that teachers can use for development of map reading skills.  
•    Travel Facts, which provide country-specific data such as major languages, religions, and other cultural practices, which can be used to generate graphs or annotated maps.  
•    One Page Summaries of every country, providing information on the Government, Geography, Economy, and People & Society.
•    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 COMING SOON

DATA USA
Data 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. Notable features for social studies teachers are:Digital Harlem Activity COMING SOON


THE FALLEN OF WORLD WAR II
The 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


GAPMINDER
Gapminder 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


GOOGLE EARTH
Google 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 HISTORY
Indian 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 MOVEMENTS
Mapping 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


METROCOSM
Metrocosm 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 NETWORK
The 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 DATA
Our 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:Our World in Data Activity COMING SOON


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 CENTER
Pew 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 EDUCATION
Population 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 VOYAGES
Slave 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.SLAVE VOYAGES ACTIVITY


TABLEAU PUBLIC
Tableau 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


TIMEMAPS
The 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


UNDATA
UNdata 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 BUREAU
United 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 FACTS
USA 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


US BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
US 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 ECONOMICS
Visualizing 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


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 BANK
The 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

This page references: