InformationIsBeautiful.net | Visualizing data as an artform

This is without a doubt the best source I have ever found for examining complicated data in easy to understand fashion. If you have been to a bookstore in the past year and seen the book The Visual Miscellaneum, this is the guy who wrote that book!

This can be an invaluable resource for teaching such complicated topics as:

political ideology...

climate change...

global economies... 

and so much more.

I've already been able to pull entire lessons out of these graphics, and just having one of these images as my desktop got my students talking when I was transferring from a powerpoint to a website.

I can't think of a more ringing endorsement than the fact that high school students thought it was fun and exciting to talk about global market dynamics and censorship based off a picture they saw in passing.

Information is Beautiful.net

The Evolution of US Political Parties, 1788-1840

This is one of the best resources I have found to explain the changing political parties of the United States over time to students. When trying to explain to students the difference between political ideology and political parties, I pulled up some of these images to show that while there have always been liberals and conservatives over time, the terms "Democrat" and "Republican" are relatively new terms, and their relation to the ideologies has drastically shifted in the past two centuries.

Timeline of Political Parties in the US 1788-1840

Timeline of Political Parties in the US 1820-1860

Timeline of Political Parties in the US 1896-1929