2012

Infographics
Lesson plans for analyzing and presenting data graphically to tell a story.

Kristin Trace Western School Board 2/24/2012

Table of Contents
Lesson Plan A: Introduction to Infographics? ............................................................................. 3 What is an Infographic? .......................................................................................................... 3 What can you use in an infographic? ...................................................................................... 3 How can an infographic be more powerful than just plain data? ............................................. 3 Lesson Plan B: Anaylsing Infographics ...................................................................................... 4 Lesson Plan C: Creating Infographics ........................................................................................ 5 Planning ................................................................................................................................. 5 Step One: Consider your topic ............................................................................................ 5 Step Two: Determine how best to present this information .................................................. 5 Step Three: Choose your design elements ......................................................................... 5 Creating.................................................................................................................................. 5 Resource Lists and Links ........................................................................................................... 7 Subject Area Ideas ................................................................................................................. 7 Language Arts .................................................................................................................... 7 Mathematics ....................................................................................................................... 7 Social Studies ..................................................................................................................... 7 Sciences ............................................................................................................................. 7 Physical Education .............................................................................................................. 7 Infographic Guides ................................................................................................................. 8 Infographic Components ........................................................................................................ 8 Infographic Examples ............................................................................................................. 8 Data Repositories ................................................................................................................... 8 Programs and Online Services ............................................................................................... 8

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Lesson Plan A: Introduction to Infographics?

What is an Infographic?
are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. With an information graphic, computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians develop and communicate concepts using a single symbol to process information.
"Infographics." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 23 feb 2012. Web. 23 Feb 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographics>.

"What Is An Infographic?." Visual.ly. Visual.ly, 23 feb 2012. Web. 23 Feb 2012. <http://visual.ly/what-infographic>.

What can you use in an infographic?

If part of an article or blog post contains numbers, dates, locations, measurements or comparisons, it probably could be taken out of the written word and reformatted into an infographic.
Mick, Dee. "Definition, Usage and Popularity of Infographics." Specky Boy Design Magazine. N.p., 14 Jul 2011. Web. 23 Feb 2012. <http://speckyboy.com/2011/07/14/definition-usage-and-popularity-of-infographics/>.

How can an infographic be more powerful than just plain data?

Check out http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html .

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Lesson Plan B: Anaylsing Infographics

Have a general discussion about infographics. Use the following key questions to guide you.

Key Questions
What are the purposes of visual displays like the charts, maps, graphs, timelines, tables and other features known as infographics? Why do many readers like infographics? Why do publishers like them? How do they cut through the clutter? What are the benefits of having so much data visualization at our disposal? What might be some drawbacks? How can we evaluate an infographic? Is there such a thing as a bad infographic? What are some of the principles behind good infographic creation? How has the field of information visualization changed over time? Other than news media, what other entities fund the creation of infographics? For what purposes? What educational background and previous work experience might information designers have?

From http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/data-visualized-more-on-teaching-with-infographics/

Choose some infographics (see Resource List for repositories or google ones which are on a topic you are covering in your course)and discuss them as a group using the above questions to guide the discussion. Have students find and present an infographic which connects to your course specifying what works well about it and what they might change to make it work specifically for your course.

Have something to contribute or want some help? Contact krtrace@edu.pe.ca. Also, be sure to check out the ever-growing Infographics Resource list on the WSB Tech Blog (wsbtechnology.blogspot.com)

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Lesson Plan C: Creating Infographics

Planning
Step One: Consider your topic What information do you wish to get across and what data will you use to do this? Research facts and statistics Ensure facts and statistics are relevant and up to date Ensure what you choose supports your thesis Be able to clearly draw conclusions Be prepared to reference or cite your facts

Step Two: Determine how best to present this information Timelines Flowcharts Graphs Venn diagrams Size comparisons Showing familiar objects/size/value Step Three: Choose your design elements Keep it simple Choose a colour scheme Choose a font scheme Select graphics to enhance flow or points BRAND IT (provide your contact info or a link to your website) If youre unsure of your own design sensibilities (at this point), check out infographics online and make use of the design elements of one which you find engaging.

Creating
1. Watch this YouTube Video to see how an infographic can be quickly created using MS Word and Excel (14 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYYJjtjC9Y&context=C3e6d03eADOEgsToPDskLM 5LJcjWZQh9aQV92FzT4i 2. Watch the continuing YouTube Video to see some further tweaks if required (4 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIUrDe7Cs4M&context=C3e6d03eADOEgsToPDskL M5LJcjWZQh9aQV92FzT4i
* Remember YouTube is only accessible in schools via a Teacher Account, so this would need to be viewed as a group.

Students and teachers may also opt to use graphics editing programs which allow for more fine tuning. See next page for a copy of the infographic created in the videos.

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Resource Lists and Links

Subject Area Ideas
Language Arts Compare books Present background information for a novel Compare a book to a movie adaptation Compare a books setting to actual statistics Create a timeline o Change of language use over time o Life of an author Literary Maps ELL Word Charts Grammar Rules Mathematics Demonstrating a budget Supply and demand Economics showing financial trends, concepts, etc. Social Studies Create a timeline Demographic /Regional Information o Change over time (eg. before and after the Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan March 2011) o Current status Family tree Election Trends Sciences Show cause and effect Demonstrate a science experiment Draw conclusions about results of an experiment Physical Education demonstrate effects of a specific food or activity on the body over time compare stats for various sports teams or athletes create a visual biography for a sports hero

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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Infographic Guides
http://www.instantshift.com/2009/06/07/infographic-designs-overview-examples-andbest-practices/ http://backspace.com/infodesign.pdf http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/06/16/infographics-what-why-how/

Infographic Components
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Infographic Examples
Visually http://visual.ly/ Myriad Editions: State of the World Infographics http://store.myriadeditions.com/myriad-store/ Information is Beautiful (website of David McCandless) http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/ Cool Infographics http://www.coolinfographics.com/ The Infographics Showcase http://www.infographicsshowcase.com/ Flowing Data http://flowingdata.com/

Data Repositories
Data sources you can use to build your infographics. Google Public Data http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory GunnMap http://www.gunn.co.nz/map/ World Mapper http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

Programs and Online Services

Programs or online services where you can create visual representations of the data you wish to feature. Tableau Public http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/download Inkscape http://inkscape.org/ Hohli http://charts.hohli.com/#cht=p3&chs=320x240&chd=s:&chf=bg,s,FFFFFF|c,s,FFFFFF& max=100&agent=hohli.com Statplanet Map Maker http://www.statsilk.com/

Kristin Trace Western School Board Technology Consultant

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