What’s Going On in This Graph? | Pandemic Price Changes (Published 2021) (2024)

These seven graphs are from a group of 179 consumer product and services graphs, which appeared in The New York Times, that show the inflation (increase, in red) or deflation (decrease, in blue) of year-over-year (“change from 12 months prior”) prices. For example, television’s November 2020 dark blue arrow icon represents an approximate 20 percent decrease in average price over November 2019 average price.

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, we will moderate your responses live online. By Friday morning, Oct. 22, we will provide the “Reveal” — the graphs’ free online link, additional background and questions, shout outs for student headlines and Stat Nuggets.

After looking closely at the graphs above (or at this full-size image), answer these four questions:

• What do you notice?

• What do you wonder?

• How does this relate to you and your community?

• What’s going on in this graph? Create a catchy headline that captures the graphs’ main idea.

The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order.

2. Next, join the conversation online by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box. (Teachers of students younger than 13 are welcome to post their students’ responses.)

3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.

4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

5. By Friday morning, Oct. 22, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.

Oct. 21, 2021

Reveal

These graphs were published in the New York Times article “179 Reasons You Probably Don’t Need to Panic About Inflation” published on Aug. 18, 2021. They show the year-over-year (see Stat Nuggets below) change in prices of consumer products and services, tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What has made consumer prices change so much since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020? Some items, like gas and hotels, had decreased in price and are now rebounding because of the “base effect” — when the year-over-year price increases are sharp, but only because they’re coming back up from a low point in prices caused by the pandemic’s economic shock. Items, like used cars, increased in price because of limited supply. Other items, like furniture, saw price increases because of supply chain bottlenecks and surges in demand because people were spending more time at home and had excess cash from not eating out or traveling. The supply of these items is now bouncing back to catch up with demand. This should result in decreasing prices.

Looking at all of the products and services, should we be concerned about increases in prices? Are prices outpacing wages? Or, are these changes “transitory” and will fade as the pandemic, supply bottlenecks and the redistribution of workers and resources have less of an effect on the economy?

Here are some of the student headlines that capture the stories of these charts: “Higher Prices, Danger Rises” by Francis of Hawai’i; “The Roller Coaster of Inflation for Common Goods” by Christyna of Oklahoma; “The Inflation Monster” by Majuco of Puerto Rico; “Should Have Bought That TV Two Years Ago” by Ethan of Chico, California; “The Prices Crisis” by Parker of Indiana; and “Inflation in the Nation” by Griffin of Indiana.

You may want to think about these additional questions:

• Choose a consumer product or service of interest to you from the 179 graphs in the article. Notice the price changes. Wonder what may have caused these changes. Do you think they will persist after the pandemic has dissipated?

• Why do you think the graph uses year-over-year statistics? How would this compare to month-to-month changes?

• Another type of graph that would show prices over time is a time series line graph with monthly prices represented by points. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of graph as compared to the graphs in the article?

Alternatively, another type of graph is a time series line graph which shows price changes from a baseline (see Stat Nugget below). Sketch a time series line graph for airline tickets, for example, with the baseline being November 2019.

Compare the three types of graphs — the article’s time series with icons, and the two time series line graphs with monthly prices and monthly price changes from a baseline. In your opinion, which best displays the changes in prices?

• Many New York Times articles allow readers to comment, as is encouraged here in “What’s Going On in This Graph?” Read some of the article’s 282 comments, some of which are designated “NYT Picks” and “Reader Picks.” See what others think about consumer price changes and what we should do about them.

• The article focuses on whether the Federal Reserve should increase interest rates to reign in rising inflation. Read the article. Explain the possible benefits and drawbacks of this intervention.

Keep noticing and wondering. We continue to welcome your online responses.

Here is next week’s graph on state election redistricting based on the 2020 census. Live-moderation will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 27. You can receive the 2021-2022 “What’s Going On in This Graph?” schedule by subscribing here to the Learning Network Friday newsletter. In the meantime, keep noticing and wondering.

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Stat Nuggets for “179 Reasons You Probably Don’t Need to Panic About Inflation ”

Below, we define mathematical and statistical terms and how they relate to this graph. To see the archives of all Stat Nuggets with links to their graphs, go to this index.

TIME SERIES

A time series graph shows how a quantitative variable changes over time.

The Pandemic Price Changes graphs each show year-over-year percentage change in average price. Red represents increases in prices and blue represents decreases in prices, with darker shades signifying greater changes in price. The lightest shades represent price changes year-over-year between -10 percent to +10 percent.

YEAR-OVER-YEAR (YOY)

Year-over-year compares the value of a variable for one period to the value for the same period the previous year. The comparison can be a raw number or a percentage, either negative, positive or zero.

In the Pandemic Price Changes graphs, the percentage changes are year-over-year values comparing monthly prices by category, such as January 2021 to January 2020. The graph’s scale labels year-over-year as “change from 12 months before.” The percentage change for any month is calculated by subtracting the prior year’s monthly price from the current year’s monthly price and then dividing by the prior year’s monthly price.

BASELINE

The baseline is a reference point used for comparisons.

For the Pandemic Price Changes graphs, the baseline could be any year. Usually, the comparison is a percentage change from the item’s baseline price, with increases in price being a positive percentage and decreases in price being a negative percentage. The percentage change is calculated by subtracting the baseline price from the current price and then dividing by the baseline price.

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The graphs for “What’s Going On in This Graph?” are selected in partnership with Sharon Hessney. Ms. Hessney wrote the “reveal” and Stat Nuggets with Erica Chauvet, a mathematics professor at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania. She moderates online with Pamela Burch, an assistant professor of decision sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

More?

• See all graphs in this series or collections of 60 of our favorite graphs, 28 graphs that teach about inequality and 24 graphs about climate change.

• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.

• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.

• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.

• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.