Shout out for "What's Going On in This Graph?"
By: Kristin Hunter-Thomson
The New York Times runs a fantastic series to get kids engaged with making sense of and asking questions from current event data visualizations in their “What’s Going on in This Graph?” feature.
What is it?
Each we they select a data visualization, or multiple, about a current event. The visualizations are accompanied with enough contextual information to be able to look at the visualization and start to think about it. Students are asked:
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What do you notice?
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What do you wonder?
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Sometimes there is an addition question about the application or meaning of what they are seeing in the visualization.
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What’s going on in this graph? Write a catchy headline that captures the maps’ main idea.
Students are then invited to post their responses to these questions, as well as other questions that they come up with while working with the visualizations, in the discussion forum on the site. They are also able to see others’ comments and are encouraged to Reply to comments to engage in a conversation with one another about the visualizations.
After the visualizations have been posted and comments have been added for a week, teachers from the American Statistical Association facilitate a discussion about the visualization, the data, as well as the many comments that have been posted by students from throughout the week. Two days later, the New York Times posts more information about the visualization, including a link to freely access the article from which it came.
Why is it worth checking out?
There are many reasons, but here are a few of my top reasons for really liking this resource:
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The “What’s Going on in This Graph?” feature utilizes a great instructional strategy of Notice-Wonder that research demonstrates helps students build their data literacy capabilities and confidence (note, to see more instructional strategies to utilize with data check out our summary of different models in teaching and learning with data).
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The format encourages students to make a decision of their responses to these open-ended questions (aka no right or wrong answer) with the information they have. They are encouraged to learn from and share out with others in this initial phase. Then they are provided more information and encouraged to revisit their prior thinking with the new information. Learning is an active process, and this feature is built around that pedagogy.
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The data are all from current events, so either things the students may be interested in and/or have heard adults around them discussing.
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By having teachers from the American Statistical Association discuss what is going on in the data and writers/data visualizers from the New York Times provide the back story and context for the visualization and the story, students are provided real-world examples of how data are used and necessary in our daily lives.
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A scaffolded way for students to gain exposure to and comfort working with different visualization types, to better prepare them to ask questions and make sense of data visualizations they see in their day-to-day lives.
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They have a running archive so that you can always check out past examples that may fit better with your curricular focus at the moment. While the reveal of the other information and the American Statistical Association discussion are already live, you can still facilitate the process similarly in your class.
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Especially now in the time of Covid-19 disruptions to normal schooling, it is an online activity that does not have to take a lot of time. It can be done as a Do Now, as an extra credit, or as a full lesson…meaning you can adapt it to fit your needs.
What are some ones I have really enjoyed?
Which ones you use is entirely dependent on your subject area and grade level, but some that I have found especially interesting and thought provoking include (in no particular order):
Fun / current topics:
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Thanksgiving Side Dishes: Which foods are unusually popular in each state on Thanksgiving
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World Leader Ages: How do the ages of U.S. presidents compare to the ages of heads of government for other nations?
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Mental Health of Teenagers: What percentage of teenagers see problems like anxiety, bullying, drug addiction and gangs as either major or minor among their peers?
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Billboard Top 100 artists who were the most watched on YouTube between January 2016 and April 2017
Natural & social science topics:
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Climate Threats: Every place has its own climate risk. What is it where you live? How may climate change affect your community?
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Women Marathoners’ Running Times: Are the fastest women marathoners running faster?
