Dashboards that make data sing
Data without a story is just noise. The best analysts make the numbers talk.
Show two charts of the same data — one with a y-axis starting at 0, one starting at a higher number to make a small change look dramatic. "This is used in politics, business and advertising every day."
Dashboard challenge: students receive a "messy dataset" (school-themed: mock attendance, grades by subject, extracurricular participation — all fictional). Task: clean the data, apply conditional formatting to highlight outliers, create 3 meaningful charts, and build a one-page dashboard for "Senior Leaders" with a clear headline message. Export as PDF.
Data story share: each student states their dashboard's headline message in one sentence. Does the visual support it?
Use AI to suggest what type of chart is most appropriate for your data, or to write the interpretation paragraph — then verify the chart choice is correct.
Data dashboard (exported PDF) with conditional formatting and 3 charts
Find a data visualisation from a news article or report. Evaluate it: what does it show well? Is anything misleading? Screenshot and annotate.
Dashboard layout template pre-built — students add charts and formatting
Use Microsoft Power BI (free) to build an interactive dashboard from the same data.