The CIA World Factbook

From time to time I want to share some awesome online resources that students and teachers may find useful....

A few years ago I bought a book of country reports in print from a well-known publisher (I won't name names) for approximately $118. However, I only bought it because I was offered a free online version of the book.

Fast-forward to three weeks ago when I began working with a class that had to write a research paper about a developing country. I suggested that the teacher use the aforementioned reference book as a great way for her students to write a research question. When I tried to visit the online version of the book, I noticed the link was dead. So I called the publisher and was told that I only had access to the online version of the book for two years. No such stipulation was ever made when I made the purchase. Needless to say, I'm still arguing my point with this publisher.

In the meantime I had to find an online reference source to do the job. SIRS and Global Issues in Context, two databases we have and I promote, had background information but do not have quick ready-reference sources. This brought me to the CIA's World Factbook. This a is a free resource that gives students vital, and current, statistics about every country in the world. The students can see a map of each particular country, its flag and some photos. More importantly, students can browse each country's statistics by its geography, people, economy, transportation, communication, etc... Wow! Awesome and free.

So how can we use this site?

For the class writing the research papers, students had to find how the developing country of their choice differed from the US. The information they collected was to be used as introductory material for their research paper and it was used to give them an idea of how far behind, economically speaking, developing countries are in comparison to the US. From that point, the students went to Global Issues in Context and read more background information about the current economic situation in the countries of their choosing. They had to develop a question for research based on what they found in their reading. There sources included video, magazine and newspaper sources.

Of course, social studies classes can use this site when discussing current events; math classes may use this to create Excel worksheets (scratch that, we don't have Excel because we are a Google school) Google Sheets along with charts and graphs comparing various economic or statistical information between/among countries; and World Language students can use it for quick reference information when making PowerPoint Google Slides presentations. With the CIA World Factbook he possibilities are endless.