Teachers have always known that it's important for students to understand how to read graphs. Newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and, oh yeah, even standardized tests are chock full of them. It's a proven fact that students who can interpret complicated graphs have well-developed, higher-level thinking skills. But in today's world, your students not only need to learn how to read graphs and the symbols and keys that go with them, they need to be able to create their own graphs.
So what's the big deal? Of course, we all made our own simple pencil and paper graphs when we went to school. What's so different today? With computer technologies it's easier to collect, store and search information and those three simple steps are the basis for hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US today. Databases of information are collected by corporations, schools, hospitals and even the local grocery store (to name only a few examples) and are used to create graphs. Because of that, your students need to learn not only how to manipulate information in a database, but also how to transfer this information into graph form and analyze or present it so that it will make the most sense.
Enter the program InspireData from the makers of Inspiration software. This tool will not only give your students the ability to create dynamic graphs, it will "inspire" them to move beyond simple line and bar graphs as they learn the many ways they can manipulate, analyze and present data - or in other words, make data "dance".
While InspireData is targeted to kids in Grades 4 up, you will immediately see ways in which you as an adult can make use of this program at school, home and in any kind of small business. Fourth and fifth graders will probably need a little help at first to get started, but after that they should take off experimenting with what the program can do.
Middle and high schoolers will be fascinated with what the program can do at first sight, but will need a little direction to keep them on task.
So you can see exactly what this powerful program does, you need to go directly to the Inspiration web site and download the 30-day free trial of InspireData because whatever else you read in this review only scratches the surface of what this software does. No matter what grade level or content area you teach, you need to figure out how to use this ingenious program in your classroom. It is perhaps the best program I've seen this year.
With the software comes the booklet Getting Started, a very readable introduction to the program. I made it through the booklet's instructions in about 30 minutes; you may get through even faster. The booklet introduces you to everything you need to know to get started with InspireData. It's well written, and as you can probably guess, includes lots of graphs and visuals to help you understand how to use the program. You'll probably want to go through the booklet first and then introduce the program to your students. Then you'll be ready should questions arise.
So What InspireData Can Do?
While setting up fields for the entry of data is easy, the program also provides resources for collection of information. If data is available, it can be imported into the program, but if it isn't, InspireData can become a collection agent. Once fields are set up, the program will help your students create questionnaires, which can be used by others to input data. For example, if you've assigned your students to do a graph about fast food, they might create a questionnaire that asks such things as: name, age, favorite fast food meal, number of fast food meals per week, etc. Then they can ask classmates to open the questionnaire on their computers and enter their answers. The answers go into a database that can be used for the graph.
Maybe you'll want your students to start working instead with data that has already been collected. To that purpose you'll find a treasure trove of figures in InspireData's library, which includes databases on topics such as world population growth, hurricanes, cats, dinosaurs, countries of the world, music-over 50 databases. Students could, for example, start their exploration of the program and graphing by creating graphs that show statistics related to seatbelt and helmet use without having to find and enter this information themselves.
After the data is in the computer, the program is ready to help your students with plotting and display of the data. They can ask the program to put their information into Venn, stack, pie or axis format and change the formatting and X-Y-axis attributes as they wish. Working with a library of icons (icons can also be imported), colors and other resources, they can create graphs that will be perfect for their assignments.
Once the graphs are complete, they can print them, insert them into reports, or place them in a slideshow. Let's say they want to create an instant presentation of their work. All they have to do is to select the graphs they want to show and add notes if they wish on the slides. That's it.
What's Available for Teachers?
Besides the 50+ databases that cross the curriculum, you'll find subject-specific lesson plans for science, math, and social studies. There are, in addition, recommended projects and experiments. The lessons and activities make use of InspireData's library of resources, so that you and your students won't have to go searching for the data you need. Examples of lessons are: "Do Employment Rates Affect Presidential Politics?", "How do Probabilities Found Through Experimentation Compare to the Actual Probability?", "How Was the United States Settled?", and "What Floats Your Boat?"
Until June 2007, schools and districts that already own five licenses for Inspiration can save 10% on volume license orders for 20 or more of InspireData.
Why Inspire Data for Your Students?
The program is more than its tools for collection, creation, and presentation of data. With it, your students will be engaging their higher level thinking, analytical, and creative skills as they decide how to best present the data they've collected. They'll be asking themselves questions about the content and the relationships they discover as they manipulate the data into different formats. Bottom line, InspireData is a thinking tool-one that will send your students digging for more information and more ways to present their discoveries. It will also get them ready for the real world!
30-day free trial
Approximately $80 (check for rebates, volume licensing and discounts)
Windows 98 SE, 2000, NT 4.0, ME or XP
64 MB RAM
50 MB available hard drive
800 x 600 display
OS X version 10.2.8 or higher
128 MB RAM
50 MB available hard drive
800 x 600 display