Federal Reserve’s economic data

The St. Louis Federal Reserve has a Summer School program for teachers. Two of the sessions deal with current events (banking crisis and jobs) but the third covers the data and primary source documents that bank makes available online (for free). These include the FRED and GeoFred websites.

Unemployment data for the Eastern US from GeoFRED.

GeoFred produces graphs like the one above showing economic statistics across the country. It can do it on a state by state basis, by county (as above), or by even more refined areas.

US GDP from FRED.

FRED plots graphs and even provides the data for economic statistics over time. The graph above shows GDP since they started collecting data in the 1940’s. It also has the times of recessions shaded in. The data in the graph can also be downloaded if you want to do your own analysis.

These seem to be handy little tools for teaching and for research projects, and are pretty easy to use.

The teachers’ training sessions are free though you have to get your own housing. They do provide breakfast and lunch. If you want graduate credit for them however, each three day session will cost around $306 and garner one credit.

Mind-Mapping software (Free)

VUE mindmap

I recently received a tip about the VUE mind-mapping software. It’s free from Tufts University and it’s open source, though you do have to register to download the software. A quick test that produced the image above shows that it’s pretty easy to use and can easily incorporate images.

Free software. It’s better than coupons.