Graphs of data sets on their own can be useful for understanding the causes and ramifications of many types of economic, social, politica, and scientific problems. Interactive graphing tools can make it easier to explore data sets related to those problems. That is the purpose of the graphing tool Gapminder. Gapminder gives users the ability to create graphs of nearly 500 demographic and economic indicators. Tekzilla Daily has a video demonstration of Gapminder in action. Watch the video below.
The TED Talk below features Gapminder’s founder Hans Rosling using Gapminder.
Applications for Education
Gapminder has a page for educators on which they can find thematic animations, graphs, quizzes, a lesson plan, and a PDF guide to using Gapminder. For teachers working in schools with slow Internet connections or very strict filtering, Gapminder has a desktop application that you can download and install for Mac or Windows computers.
Gapminder is a good tool for visual learners to see data in a way that changes the data from numbers to bubbles for easy comparison.
