How to Create a Classic Graph in the NCES Kids Zone

The National Center for Education Statistics, a federal entity dedicated to collecting and analyzing education data, offers a kids' zone with many features, facts and tools available. One of these is a Web-based graphing tool that provides a simple way to create many types of graphs, such as a bar, line, area, pie or coordinate graph.

Instructions

1. Type into your web browser: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx.

2. Click on the Create a Graph Classic image in the lower right-hand area of the screen.

3. Choose the type of graph you wish to create in the drop-down menu below the description. Allow the next page to load.

4. Click on the link that says, "Click here to create a _____ Graph" below the description text.

5. Find the section below that corresponds to the type of graph you selected.

Area Graph

1. Choose the number of data points you would like to display from the first drop-down menu. If you have between two and 15 data points, choose the two-to-15 selection.

2. Fill in the Title of Graph, Title of X Axis (the horizontal axis in the graph), and the Title of the Y Axis (the vertical axis in the graph) in the next three text fields below.

3. Fill in the data points for the X and Y values. For each point, the text field on the left should be filled with the value of the x (horizontal) data point, and the text field on the right should be filled with the value of the y (vertical) data point. Repeat until all data points are filled in.

4. Fill in the minimum values you wish to display on the X and Y axes. Then below, fill in the maximum values you wish to display on the X and Y axes.

5. Check the box for 3D Graph if you wish to create a 3-dimensional graph. Then choose the radio button for the size of the graph: small, medium, large or extra-large.

6. Select your choices for the remaining drop-down menus for the area color of the region beneath the line of the graph, the background color for the graph, and the image file type of the graph. Click the "Create Printable Graph" button and your graph will be created.

Bar Graph

1. Choose the number of data points you would like to display from the first drop-down menu. If you have between one and 15 data points, choose the one-to-15 selection.

2. ill in the Title of Graph, Title of X Axis (the horizontal axis in the graph), and the Title of the Y Axis (the vertical axis in the graph) in the next three text fields below.

3. Fill in the data points for each bar. For each point, the text field on the left should be filled with the name of the bar, and the text field on the right should be filled with the data value for that bar. Also choose the color for that bar in the drop-down menu to the right. Repeat until all data points are filled in.

4. Fill in the minimum values and maximum values you wish to display for your graph.

5. Check the box for 3D Graph if you wish to create a 3-dimensional graph. Then choose the radio button for whether the bars in the graph should point vertically, horizontally or if they should be stacked on top of each other. Choose the radio button for the size of the graph: small, medium, large or extra-large.

6. Select your choices for the remaining drop-down menus the background color for the graph and the image file type of the graph. Click the "Create Printable Graph" button and your graph will be created.

Line Graph

1. Choose the number of data points you would like to display from the first drop-down menu. If you have between two and 15 data points, choose the two-to-15 selection. From drop-down menu below, select the number of lines you want on your graph.

2. Fill in the Title of Graph, Title of X Axis (the horizontal axis in the graph), and the Title of the Y Axis (the vertical axis in the graph) in the next three text fields below.

3. Fill out the title for each line in the text fields for "Line Title." Then, for each line, make a selection in each drop-down menu for the line color, the data point color, the data point shape and the data point size.

4. Fill in the data points for each line. For each point in each line, there is a left text field that should be filled with the X (horizontal) data value, and a right text field that should be filled with the Y (vertical) data value.

5. Fill in the minimum values you wish to display on the X and Y axes. Then below, fill in the maximum values you wish to display on the X and Y axes.

6. Check the box for 3D Graph if you wish to create a 3-dimensional graph. Then choose the radio button for the size of the graph: small, medium, large or extra-large.

7. Select your choices for the remaining drop-down menus for the background color for the graph and the image file type of the graph. Click the "Create Printable Graph" button and your graph will be created.

Pie Chart

1. Choose the number of slices in the pie you would like to display from the first drop-down menu. If you have between one and 15 slices, choose the one-to-15 selection.

2. Fill in the Title of Graph in the next text field.

3. Fill in the text fields for the name of the pie slice and the value of the pie slice for each slice. Also choose the color for the pie slice in the drop-down menu to the right. The sum of all the values of all the pie slices does not have to add up to 100.

4. Check the box for 3D Graph if you wish to create a 3-dimensional graph. Then choose the radio button for the size of the graph: small, medium, large or extra-large.

5. Select your choice for the image file type of the graph. Click the "Create Printable Graph" button and your graph will be created.

References

• Create A Graph