To see the interactive versions of these charts, head over to our blog. If you’re inclined to share, here is the link: http://blog.plot.ly/post/101948363382/what-scientists-engineers-teachers-journalists-say

Making graphs and analyzing data are essential skills for science, engineering, journalism, and data analysis of all types. Collaborating online with our team means we can work better and faster. The status quo tools — pencil and paper, desktop software, and graphing calculators — present problems.

• Our data, graphs, software, files, and analysis are disconnected.
• Time and money are lost buying, downloading, installing, and learning software.
• We can’t collaboratively edit data and graphs together in the cloud.
• Practicing and future scientists, mathematicians, journalists, and engineers need world-class tools; they will not professionally use the tools they learned in high school.

Paul Beeken is a teacher in New York who has faced these problems. Paul received his PhD in physics from Columbia University, worked at CalTech and the IBM Watson Research Center, and recently published an article on Plotly and “Graphing Reality” in The Physics Teacher. He concludes:

“The speed with which data can be imported, manipulated, and presented insures that the conversation focuses on the data and not as much on the execution. Our district’s adoption of Google’s web services further simplifies the ability of my students to share and disseminate their efforts…”

This post will explain Plotly’s offerings, which are:

Plotly: Interactive Graphs, Powerful Data Analysis

Plotly is different because it’s free, online, doesn’t need to be downloaded, and supports collaboration. Plotly also lets you make and share beautiful, interactive graphs. For example, here is a bubble chart.

• The x axis measures GDP per capita
• The y axis measures life expectancy
• Marker size measures total population
• Color measures region (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania)

Learn more by reading our post on the power of bubble charts or a tutorial on making this chart.

Each online graph contains an interactive, editable, embeddable, exportable version of the graph and data. A plot by Paul Beekan is shared here: plot.ly/~PaulBeeken/118/. In addition, we offer tools for data analysis, applying fits and functions, statistics, and a number of chart types, including 3D graphs(see below).

Plotly supports live-streaming via our APIs, an Arduino, a Raspberry Pi, or other connected devices.

Integrations with Google

Plotly has helpful integrations with Google. Our Chrome App and website let users collaborate on different devices and computers, using any browser. The Plotly App is is part of Google’s Chrome Educational App Pack. Our integrations also let users import spreadsheets from Google Drive and make accounts with their Google profile. Our Chrome Extension lets you find and export files from anywhere into Plotly.

Quotes From The Field

Dr. Michael Frank is the 2011 Recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Dr. Frank likes that Plotly’s Chrome App helps him

“…teach high school students how scientists really analyze and present data. This app goes well beyond anything else we have been able to find.”

Andrew Hartnett — a teacher and curriculum developer who just finished a PhD in physics at Princeton — is an enthusiastic educator.

“I am building a data centered curriculum for my students, all of whom have school Chromebooks. I am pumped to use real scientific tools, not a cartoon program that came with the textbook.”

Fran Poodry, a Physics Educational Specialist at Vernier with 20 years of teaching experience explains the Plotly, Vernier, and Google collaboration this way:

“Vernier’s Graphical Analysis for Chrome lets students collect and display data from sensors. Combining our technology with Plotly and Chromebooks gives students and scientists powerful tools for modeling physical phenomena and uncovering the laws of nature.”

Professor Carl Brandon of Vermont Technical College notes:

“Plotly was key for getting NASA approval to launch a CubeSat for space exploration.”

Dylan Matthews, a data journalist who has written for the Washington Post and is now a writer for Vox:

“Plotly is my absolute favorite way to communicate data and complex ideas to my readers.”

Plotly: A Tool Students Can Grow With

Plotly is a platform for learning about and doing data analysis and data visualization. We have tutorials, trainings, videos, a feed of graphs, and blog posts on both introductory and advanced topics. For example, what line types are available?

When and how should you change the opacity of a scatter plot?

Our goal is to be easy for first-time, non-technical users yet powerful and scientific for advanced users. For technical users, we offer APIs and training for scientific graphing languages and libraries: MATLAB, Python, R, Node.js, Julia, and Excel. Our local deployments, private sharing, and educational packages allow labs and educational teams to use Plotly on-premises. Plotly is used on-premise by a quantum research lab at the University of Copenhagen, SpaceX, and Aerospace Corporation. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. You can email us at feedback at plot.ly, or find us @plotlygraphs.

At a Glance

The challenge:

• Affordable technology that helps students develop statistical literacy
• Cloud-based solution for graphing and data analysis
• A single tool to graph, analyze perform statistics on relevant data sets.

The solution:

• A flexible graphing and analysis tool native to Google Chrome
• Intuitive integration with Google Docs
• Support to help teachers integrate modern software into their lessons

The benefits:

• Work from anywhere, on any device
• Integrates with existing software
• Interact with data in a new way-Plotly graphs are interactive!