Community reviews for Gapminder

This is an excellent tool as it helped my students understand better in class as well as at home. It is also interesting as it empowered my students with live information. I used this tool at the beginning of the session to help students get information and use them for a writing task. I think it is good, but some students need more time to understand it.

Incredibly fast and reliable site for large data sets which will interest students with an interest in travel, politics or global citizenship. Student can get lost in the plethora of information, but I suggest letting them get a little lost so they understand the complexities of the world we live in.

The information presented in GapMinder is not simple. If you take the time to help students learn to use the site and to understand the meaning of real data, you will be doing them several favours. 1. You will teach them how to understand data and infographics. 2. You will help them find concrete evidence to support points of view on serious global issues. 3. You will support their development of real research techniques. It's been worth it in my classroom.

Gapminder is an engaging way to view statistics for different countries over time, either in isolation or as a comparative study. As part of an exploration into the effects of one factor on another, it has a lot of potential. It is interactive in its presentation and visually appealing and lends itself to inquiry-based activities. Sharing happens via link, but the site would be even more useful if the graphs or charts could be easily embedded via embed code. The site also has some teacher resources and lessons suited to the information provided, including a card game (downloadable as Word or PDF). The 2.5 minute video demo is almost a must when first using this tool as it isn't very intuitive. There's a wealth of information here, but figuring out how to view and use it takes a bit of effort.

Gapminder focuses on the past 200 years of development across the world. It shows the life expectancy, GDP, and other shifts. There are blog posts, videos, downloads, and a number of "how-to"s to help users along the way. It provides statistical data that would work great in a current events or world history class, but also could be used meaningfully in statistics or other math classes.