The Fries that Bind Us

This pair of infographics, from Princeton University’s International Networks Archive, depict the global reach of two of the most recognisable US brands. It could be used as a basis for business studies discussions or maths problems.

via The Math Paige.

This beautiful interactive map visualizes Earth’s human population and how we live.  It is the latest addition to 7 Billion, National Geographic’s year-long investigation of  overpopulation, with articles, videos and images to illustrate this huge potential disaster.

The Educurator previously covered another representation of Earth’s booming human population here.

http://twitter.com/#!/7BillionActions/status/85006654088806400

PBS LearningMedia is a rich new resource for educators and parents of kids learning a wide range of subjects.  The US Public Broadcasting Service has selected and organised more than 14,000 digital artefacts, including thousands of high-quality videos supported by lesson plans and printable resources, most of which are linked to the relevant US curriculum national standards.

Providers include NASA, The US National Archive and the Library of Congress, content is easily searchable and access to the resources is free.

The idea is to enrich the learning experience with vivid new content, to reinforce teachers’ subject knowledge and to fully benefit from the educational potential of available digital resources. On a much more modest scale, these are also the objectives of the Educurator, who is excited and inspired by this new facility and will be mining it for educational gems to share with you.

An example is this lesson on “analysing and comparing perspectives on issues”, with a video about Gorillas in captivity, a detailed lesson plan, a handout and plenty of suggestions for discussion and assessment.  The lesson is from the English language curriculum, but is clearly adaptable to Citizenship and Science.

Click here or on the image below to watch the video,  as most of  the site’s videos don’t seem to be embeddable.

Infographic: ‘Our Dwindling Food Variety’

This infographic powerfully illustrates another of mankind’s challenges: How to feed a booming population while relying on very limited crop varieties. The image accompanies the feature article in the latest National Geographic, which addresses the battle to protect the world’s food supply.  Although the graphic uses only US data, it represents an issue which all of us are going to have to face sooner or later.

The article is also accompanied by nice galleries of rare and endangered chickens and seeds.

Thanks to it caught my eye and curiosity counts.

Google's Body Browser

One of Google’s latest experiments is their Body browser (now in Labs) , which should help biology and medical students to find their way around their subject.

This visualization of the altitude  range of Earth’s surface has been around for a year now, but is still fascinating.  Even better, Google Earth Blog has provided Google Earth links to many of the landmarks from the infographic, so you can zoom over and look at them from the comfort of your computer.

The wreck of the Titanic in 3D in Google Earth

I’ve linked to fishery infographics by David McCandless before. This one would be useful for those studying Home Economics or Food Technology.

https://twitter.com/#!/infobeautiful/status/84303205395210241

A new survey from Simply Business has revealed the changing face of Britain’s highstreets.

The survey, which looked at some 75,000 businesses quoted by Simply Business between 2008 and 2010, also found that hairdressers and beauty salons are beginning to thrive – with the former now the most common type of non-hospitality establishment on the High Street.

But retailers have fared worse, with clothes shops and newsagents showing a marked decline during the period.

Although the presentation of some of the data is confusing, I think this visualization would strike a chord with teenagers who have lived through the two years covered by the survey, and open their eyes to the constant social and economic flux of which they are a part.

Dwarf Sawfish

ARKive is building a repository of film and photos of the world’s endangered species.  It’s an incredible collection.

I discovered ARKive via Open Culture‘s list of Intelligent Video sites, one of many examples of that organisation’s curation of valuable free content from around the web.