I checked out gapminder today and took a close look at it. I changed the graphs around several times and took the time to interpret what I was seeing. There would be good use for this site in a science classroom because students always need more practice reading graphs. Now it would be very useful to input information into gapminder and see the results. My students would be interested in graph information they have obtained in the classroom. I have an activity where we graph the success of a population and that would work out nicely in gapminder. I checked out the requirements for adding information to gapminder and it doesn't look too bad. I'll try it once I get back to class :)
The graphs on gapminder are pretty complex to interpret which is why using this would be good practice for my students. They need as much exposure as possible to graph interpretation.
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I'm glad you see the value and need for interpretation of data and how much our students need this skill. I like the visual representaton over time that Gapminder gives. Just rows of data can be overwhelming. Static graphs and charts give one time snapshots but his tool really gives information on ongoing trends. I'm proud of you that you figured out how to input your own data. I'd love to hear how it works out in your own classroom.
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