Topics · Graphs, Data & Chance
Tell the story
Turn a data set into a picture story that's clear AND fair — then check that the words match the numbers.
Good infographics inform. Great ones let you check them.
More ways into this idea
- Make it a gameTruth or Spin?Read the numbers, the picture and the headline. What do they really support?
- Test yourselfA fresh mixed set, whenever you likeExplanations after every question. Nothing is recorded.
Common sticking points
- A common sticking point is treating correct numbers as proof that the headline is fair. A graph can be completely accurate while the sentence above it claims far more than the data shows.
- Another is judging a data story by how finished it looks — bright colours, a bold title, a big number. Polish is a design choice; it is not evidence.
- A third is deciding there is one best kind of graph. The useful question is what the reader is trying to find out: a stacked-bar graph is excellent for shares of a whole and poor for comparing two close values.
Try this together
Find any chart in a newspaper, a shop or a game. Cover the headline and read only the numbers — what would YOU say about them? Now uncover the headline. Does it say the same thing, more, or less? Then ask the sneaky one: who was counted to make this?
1–5 minutes, no materials to buy, nothing to hand in.
Ontario curriculum details
- D1.4Create an infographic about a data set
Plain-language summaries. See the full curriculum for every expectation and the official source.