With so much turmoil this year across the political spectrum, with the upheaval in the economy, and with the constant headlines asking the question, "Why is there so much hate in society?," we found it hard at times to keep a positive attitude and neutral position in our classrooms. It's also no wonder that according to Google search trends for 2018, the world searched for "good" more than ever before; people needed something positive.
We did, too. We're sure that's why the "Building Hopes" visualization designed by Accurat caught our eye. It appeared on a list for top visualizations for 2018. This interactive visualizations lets users create "Hope Sculptures" by balancing rocks to represent the things that they are hopeful for. Ironically, the size and rotation of the rocks, including their direction and speed, are linked to Google Trends data on the topics that are chosen.
While the website lets you build "Hope Sculptures,” such as the images in this post, the mobile app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, takes it to another level.
By walking closer toward the floating rocks, the topics appear for selection. The user needs to pick at least four in order to build and place his or her "Hope Sculpture." It can be placed down anywhere, such as the image at the beginning of this post.
There are ten different topics to choose from, and each rock can be weighted depending on how much hope there is for each one. They can be viewed by hopes or by topics, but what makes it even more interactive is how your hopes can be compared to others who participate in the project.
Once the sculpture is created, it can be used to access Google Trends data to see how people around the world are searching the same ideas, concepts, and movements. The size, rotation, direction and speed of the rocks represent different data trends.
We think letting students create their own hopes for 2019 would be an excellent way to begin the new year in our classrooms. Students can use this information to discover what others are hopeful for, and how passionately.
It provides an opportunity to think about what's important and to share ideas in an innovative way. It could be incorporated into classroom discussions or written reflections.
Hope is what we need for the future; it brings out the good in all of us.
Design is the marriage of message and motif. It is the intersection of identity and icon. In crafting a logo or a slogan or a character, the end symbol is the summation of both the shape and the story.
That’s why the images of the Olympic Games have reached such exalted status. The five rings are a beacon of continental unity. The posters and medals and mascots have linked arms through the years to provide an intriguing portrait of episodic design trends and nationalistic pride.
The Olympic torch is an often-overlooked aspect of sports history. Many viewers might remember the televised cauldron lightings, but few can recall the specifics of each particular torch style. This is a shame, because the Rio 2016 cresset is a testament to careful design and deeply embedded meaning.
For a look back at past Olympic torches, this wiki outlines a complete list of manufacturers and designers. For a visual gallery, the Olympic site includes icons going back to the 1936 Berlin Games.
The torch relay, in particular, inaugurates the Games as the flame travels from its Greek origins to then crisscross Brazil in an escalating parade of famous athletes and historic sites. Mapping this journey through graphics and animations offers valuable chances to learn about geography and culture.
For better or worse, current events also feature prominently in the torch's travelogue (much like the 2014 Sochi controversies). At various stops, the Rio carriers have so far been attacked with a fire extinguisher, beset by an unruly jaguar, and accused of carrying a "cursed" flame.
In essence, the torch relay is a fitting cavalcade to the heroic spirit of the competition. It builds anticipation for the contests to come, and it shines a spotlight on the country's locales and heritage. It also welcomes the world into a terrain that may be unfamiliar. This widening of the learning lens is crucial in pushing students to look outside themselves. Sydney's 2000 triumph and Beijing's 2008 spectacle both prove the worth of these quadrennial jamborees.
For more ideas about exploring the Olympics or using the Games in education, check out:
It's rare that a single flower becomes a viral, stakeout sensation. We admit that we've been fixated. While YouTube eyes are currently obsessed with a grotesque and freakish bloom, educators may be missing an opportunity.
Yesterday the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) announced that after a decade of cultivation, the Amorphophallus titanum finally began to bloom. Commonly known as the "corpse flower," this plant from Sumatra in Indonesia exudes the smell of rotting meat as it opens. The putrid odor and the otherworldly shape are keys to its appeal, as its startling height. The flower has notched the Guinness World Record for the tallest bloom in cultivation at over 10 feet (and even larger in its natural habitat).
The New York Botanical Garden first hosted a successful bloom of the corpse flower in 1937. A second emerged in in 1939, but generations have past to witness the third revelation of this dreamy, rancid blossom. Visitors have been lining up, and online watchers have been glued to the YouTube livestream, mostly because the scare appearance lasts for only 24 - 36 hours.
Why is this floral oddity relevant for teachers and students? On a basic level, this quirky natural artifact offers countless avenues for science learners to explore biology, botany, morphology, behavior, pollination, inflorescence, germination, dormancy, regionality, and cultivation. For example, the bloom is not actually one large flower. Instead it comprises a leaf-like ring of outbursts surrounding a central column.
On a higher level, the fascination with this shy and fetid flower speaks to every teacher's desire (and angst): how can we make make learning relevant? How can we pinpoint the moving target of our contemporary kids' attention spans? If they are attracted by a weird plant, what can we learn from this momentary buzz to inform our curricula?
Is it too much to ask that a daily lesson is unexpected? Is it pandering to give students something to anticipate, to look forward to? The allure of the NYBG "Corpse Flower Cam" lies in the waiting. It rests in the charisma of the macabre. Why does a flower smell so bad? What is the evolutionary attraction for carrion creatures that will come and spread the pollen?
In other words, all classes should unfold like a mystery. Children ought to be rapt in the one-in-a-million stories: the collapse of the Spanish armada, the elegance of Euler's identity, the chance of penicillin's discovery, or the lightning of a boy's forehead.
For locals, the occasion to visit a monstrous plant that reeks of spoiled flesh is priceless. Would that all of our classes were as exhilarating. For the rest of us, this is a neat moment that we should remember in September, to excite STEM learners and to wake up the drowsy kids who don't think our "Do Now" exercise lives up to their Snapchat feed.
On August 25, 2016, the National Park Service (NPS) turns 100. After a century of shepherding America's splendor, the Park Service and its personnel will rightfully be feted as dedicated, humble stewards of our country's most precious landscapes.
Personally, we have been lucky enough to visit many of the nation's 59 parks on all points of the compass. Each site has never failed to live up to its consecration as a place of American rarity, pride, and beauty. From the unspoiled trails to the popular overlooks, every curated destination within the wilderness is a testament to the work and vision of the Parks Service.
This august anniversary introduces many opportunities to weave the Parks into authentic classroom lessons. For example, the "Every Kid In A Park" initiative seeks to connect our nation's youth to its most treasured spaces. Additionally, a wide range of visualizations now provide easy ways to incorporate the centennial into state standards and skill-based curricula. At their least, these videos and graphics offer terrific kick-offs to a morning's discussion. At their best, these charts and illustrations support critical student proficiencies. They also bring to life the gorgeous panoply of natural wonder that would make any Disney confection blush.
To start, the "Find Your Park" website gathers videos and social media interactions of everyday first-person testimonials about the grandeur of America's vistas. As a companion, the NPS has opened its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data to the public, for educators and graphic artists to tap in building models of terrains and visitations.
Some of the best renderings of the National Parks come from the Works Project Administration during the 1930s New Deal. These art deco posters from the Federal Arts Project capture the majesty of the otherworldly settings in colorful and appealing travel enticements. National Geographic has assembled a nice collection of these posters from the Library Of Congress.
In a video homage, the outdoor outfitter O.A.R.S. has put together a stunning tribute to the Parks, told through the stirring words of Theodore Roosevelt. As befitting its founder, the NPS takes seriously its safeguarding of America's geology. It invites students of energy, minerals, and paleontology to explore the singular contours and cliffs through open online access and badging of restoration and geoscience. These resources are terrific for earth science and environmentally minded teachers to investigate with their students.
In math and statistics, the minds at FiveThirtyEight (who usually spend their time worrying about political polls and baseball ERAs) have analyzed the popularity of each park. They crafted crisp graphs and charts for STEM educators to draw from in ranking the visitors to each venerated location. As they note, "the U.S. national parks have never been so popular," and the Great Smoky Mountains continues its reign as the most-visited National Park, due to its location and exquisiteness.
In probing the specifics beneath the Great Smoky Mountains' charm, researcher John Farrell raked the Instagram API to determine where in the Park photographs were most frequently snapped. His visualization layers social media atop traditional coordinate geography to present a new picture of the Park's usage. He includes similar map mash-ups for other coast-to-coast sites.
For its part, the NPS has put together its own retro advertisement, in the classic style of antique movie reels or 1950s television ads. This wry film is a perfect nod to the 100-year heritage of the organization. It also displays a warm embrace of every citizen who passes through the Parks' gates.
In order to help navigate the Parks, the Sierra Club has designed a System Map based on the urban subway template. This seemingly humorous rendering actually gives travelers a valuable guide in planning their vacations and in connecting the dots between regional marvels.
Finally, the purest representations of America's National Parks have always come from the minds of the country's painters. Beginning with the light portraits of Thomas Moran, many artists have sought to capture the glory of glaciers and geysers. Most recently, David Hockney scratched a series of brilliant sweeps on his iPad in his "Yosemite Suite." These personal, stylized views prove to any viewer that the nation's Parks are love letters to its wilderness. They are the last vestige against urbanity and a hallmark of global distinction.
Both STEM and sports get a bad rap. In the corridors of learning, science is sometimes seen as esoteric or irrelevant, while sports are seen as base or quotidian. Kids are often repelled by the former and drawn by the latter, mostly due to a misunderstanding about the intersection between math and athletics, between technology and physicality.
Fortunately, the possibilities of animations and motion graphics have helped visualize sports in riveting, educational ways. On both the professional and personal levels, data-driven graphics can bring to life the genuine learning benefits of athletics in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses.
In digitally nuanced videos, physics meets the real-world. Body kinesthesia moves from the static textbook page to vibrant video overlay. The visualizations can layer equations and statistics atop everyday pastimes. Sports heroes become humanized in analyzing the biology and chemistry that make them great. Familiar backyard games become elevated by realizing the arcs and velocities necessary to score a goal.
Furthermore, these stunning artistic creations validate the requisite addition of the "A" to STEM. A complete "STEAM" approach, including the Arts, proves the value of imagination, design, and narration in producing such compelling animations.
The following motion graphics and animations take the discussion even further, looking for fresh avenues to incorporate the personal interests of students into their science and math educations. These videos are great kick-offs to a morning's discussion, and they are valuable context-builders for putting formulas, trajectories, and graphs in their rightful, real-world contexts.
Educators have always sought to add visual interest to their lessons, to support learning modalities and to provide illustrative examples of the topics under consideration. From postcards to prints, from filmstrips to YouTube, the power of pictures and movies to aid learning is undeniable. Now, various digital tools and editing applications are enlivening "flat" images in thrilling fashion. The animation of historical photos is bringing primary sources to life in ways unimagined by teachers and students a decade ago.
Often called 2.5D, or "the Parallax Effect," the rendering of motion within a still photograph allows the eye to traverse the image in a more fully realized manner. The forced examination of details, as foregrounds and backgrounds snap into focus, invites viewers to explore the entire depth of field. In adding movement to static characters, the past becomes relevant as observers imagine the seconds preceding and succeeding the camera's shutter. A crescendo of action added to a familiar scene places the spectator within the historical moment. Each detail now becomes tangible and palpable. Each setting contains nuance and fluidity.
Even more interesting for educators to consider are the ways these adaptations of primary sources reinforce the critical questions about dealing with pictorial artifacts: What role does the photographer or editor play in staging a photo? What is intentionally included, removed, or modified within a scene? Is any artificial capture of a moment truly "real," and how much scholarly skepticism should students lend to every research source?
Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, and Audition are some of the most common tools to render photographs and paintings from 2D to 3D. The History Channel (and several truck commercials) use these effects regularly in their productions. Some excellent tutorials exist (where else?) on YouTube to practice creating these styles of videos (here and here).
At their most advanced, these animations ask us to reconsider the historical and the artistic record as changeless constants. At their most basic, however, these videos are just neat. They are inviting and clever. They lure in students and others to enjoy the study of history even more.
For other ideas about creating animations, check out:
Every once in a while, an interactive website comes along that is as beautiful as it is instructive. In Pieces is just that site. The interactive exhibition turns 30 of the world's most interesting endangered species facing a fragmented survival into captivating images of complex, paper folding using 30 pieces. Bryan James is the creative designer who built the project using CSS polygons that morph and move. He provides an extensive list of sources for his content as well as a host of links for other organizations that would be helpful for student research.
The site is thought-provoking and guaranteed to engage learners about the beauty of nature and the need to protect species under the threat of extinction. With melodic music playing in the background, users can chose to have the exhibition cycle through all the species, or select one at a time to explore.
Artistically, it fascinates the eye, but on a deeper level, it provides extensions for learning and discovery. Teachers can easily use the tools and links for students to explore the
risk to each one by selecting, "What's the threat?" A brief summary
appears describing the dangers, predators, and organizations trying to
help. They can also watch a short video showing the animal in its
natural habit.
In addition, In Pieces supplies a range of statistical information
using an interactive graph. Each one, like each threat, is slightly
different. The information includes topics such as population, recovery
plan, re-introduction into the wild, and captivity. Using the statistics, students could plot their own charts to compare the rates of decline or
the efforts to recover. Whether in a science or a math lesson, the possibilities are endless.
In Pieces hopes to inspire and educate others about the
sensitive need to protect the diversity of species. The intriguing way
the designer brings fragmented pieces together makes a powerful
connection.
If people come together, we can save the
species the world is on the verge of losing.
Last week, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) released the 2015 Global Peace Index (GPI) on its Vision of Humanity
website. As with our earlier posts on the topic of peace, and in particular the release of the 2013 and 2014 GPI, we believe that sharing these findings each year helps to establish a deeper understanding of the effects of peace on society. The resources available on the site provide educators with a variety of learning materials, including an interactive map, infographic highlights, and a short motion graphic explaining this year's report.
Unfortunately, while peace did not necessarily decline a great deal in 2015, the GPI for this year does reveal an increasingly more divided world. The motion graphic below helps to explain how the most
peaceful countries are enjoying increasing levels of peace and prosperity,
while the least peaceful countries spiral into violence and conflict.
In our classrooms, we receive countless questions from young learners regarding current events with reference to violence both in the United States and abroad. We suppose, too, that so much of what we teach in our history classes involves conflict, conquest, and seizure. It’s no wonder that we get this question every year, “Do you think there will ever be a time without war?” We can only reply with, “We hope so.” The strife and conflict in the news does not bode well for a better
answer, and if history is any indication, the prospect looks grim.
Nevertheless, we will do our part to educate young learners to be peacemakers, builders, and keepers. We need young people to believe in social justice, human rights, and peace. The more mindful we are about our actions, the greater the chance for change. This includes talking about divisive issues of racism, immigration, and sexual orientation. We don't want to think about the ramifications if we don't make peace part of the daily conversation. The more voices, the better. Make them heard by preparing now for the International Day Of Peace on September 21, 2015.
We've long admired the election resources from Project Vote Smart, but some new interactive tools are taking the 2014 midterms to mind-boggling levels. The non-partisan consortium has designed two dynamic interfaces that explore issues and candidates across the country. Students of any level will be mesmerized by the vivid graphics as they accumulate an understanding about individual politicians and their votes.
The Vote Easy site uses kid-friendly animations that allow users to choose a state and zip code to hone in on candidates in their neighborhoods. The politicians are rated on "courage" depending on whether or not they agreed to answer Vote Smart's questionnaire about key issues. Students can select areas of interest, such as "Education," "Energy," or "Environment," to align their personal viewpoints with the candidates who agree with them. Each contestant's face hops backward or forward in proportional "fit" as students indicate how important a topic is to them. This clever interaction reinforces the notion that voting is relative, since citizens care about issues in varying degrees.
The Political Galaxy site drills down on every state and national figure across a spinning universe of politicians. By inputting either a name or zip code, students can navigate an impressive array of facts about each official, including votes, speeches, positions, funding, and ratings across a firmament of topics. The Political Galaxy page, by the way, works fine on mobile platforms, while Vote Easy's Flash encoding doesn't work on iOS devices.
The problem in getting students excited about non-presidential elections is the same obstacle keeping actual voters away from the polls: they need a reason to care. Most Americans do not internalize the critical importance of Congressional and local contests. To address this predicament, several high-quality infographics highlight the significance of this year's fights. The "All About The 2014 Midterm Elections" graphic from Share America offers a clean layout of compelling facts to tutor students and citizens in what's at stake this November.
Two other infographics try to inspire younger voters from opposite directions. The "Why Young People Don't Vote" image from CivicYouth.org emphasizes the impediments keeping twenty-somethings away from the polls.
On the other hand, the "Vote With Confidence" placard from Bing's Voter Guide attempts to assuage the stress that young citizens feel over their lack of political understanding.
Yesterday, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) released the 2014 Global Peace Index (GPI) on its Vision of Humanity website. The goal of this interactive site is to bring peace research to life with interactive maps, reports, and the latest media pertaining to it. As with our earlier posts on the topic of peace, and in particular the release of the 2013 GPI, it is important that we continually share these findings with our learners.
We see the excitement surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament daily with kids and adults. It is no wonder the current IEP used this public attention to release the latest GPI report with the banner "Peace World Cup."
Peace is not always easy to define, but perhaps simply put, it is the absence of war or conflict. That is at least the most tangible definition for our learners to grasp, but it is much more. If we live in harmony with the world around us, we think of it as “positive peace;” yet countries that achieve a state of peace because they are not involved in conflicts either external or internal can be in a period of “negative peace.” In other words, the level of peacefulness is not necessarily in harmony with the discord felt among citizens.
The map below shows how 162 countries around the world rank according to their peacefulness based on the 2014 GPI. There is also a concise PDF download of the report with colorful visuals, charts, and statistical information. Both of theses resources will be helpful to teachers in designing lessons to use with students.
The video for the Global Peace Index 2014 summarizes the state of peace around the world over the last seven years, and it is well worth the few short minutes to watch and discuss with students. It brings together the research to show how the GPI, the Cost of Violence Containment, and the Pillars of Peace are all connected.
We want our students to be those “pillars of peace” who take a vested interest in attitudes, structures, and institutions that underpin a peaceful world. With over 200 million people living below the poverty line and over 9 trillion dollars a year spent on containing violence, it’s more important than ever to help our young learners see peace as the most fundamental human right of all people.
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