With Theme 4 teaching awaiting after the Christmas break, I’ve started to review my materials for teaching trade. Section 4.1.3 of the Edexcel A specification requires students to learn ‘Factors influencing the pattern of trade between countries and changes in trade flows between countries’. Back in 2012 I read Geoff’s article about work of the MIT Media Lab and the Observatory of Economic Complexity and have used this resource many times in lessons since.

Recently, I came across two other data visualisation projects, by the same team: the Atlas of Economic Complexity and the Globe of Economic Complexity. The Globe includes some fantastic features such as the ability to ‘stack’ country exports, giving a powerful overview of the values for different countries, with each row representing $2.5bn. The Atlas allows you to quickly visualise changes over time, in the trade patterns of countries, by their products and their partners.

I hope that both of these resources will support students as they begin their studies of international trade next year and teachers when delivering the above specification point.