Have you explored Gapminder: for a fact-based world?  Check out GapMinder for Teachers.

Have you seen/heard Hans Rosling use multiple representations to visualize problems and trends?

Here’s a 4 minute start:  Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – The Joy of Stats – BBC Four

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In Curriculum 21, Heidi Hayes Jacobs says:

Geography should be cut as a snapshot unit with an integrated approach continuously woven into the academic year. Rather than the token “let’s start off the school year with our classic unit on geography,” the curriculum should include an ongoing injection and use of geography and a full range of maps. When schools do not use maps of all kinds with regularity in a range of classes (English, science, art), our students do not get to apply geography in a meaningful way.  [p. 36]

If you are teaching about Asia, Africa, Indonesia, etc., can you integrate math into your lessons using this resource?  Likewise, if you are teaching math – from plotting points on the Cartesian plane to graph interpretation – can you use this resource to help your students have a global view of our world?

If you are teaching about the environment, can you use this resource?

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And my favorite, Hans Rosling and the magic washing machine, for teaching women’s studies, the environment, and/or the industrial revolution:

Aren’t all of these talks connected?

What questions will our learners have?  Can we make graphing more engaging by using real data connected to the economy, health, education, etc.?  Can we teach writing, geography, history, science by interpreting and analyzing these graphs?

Who will join forces to form our learning team so that we confidently integrate and mashup content?

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Jacobs, Heidi Hayes. Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2010. Print.