Now students of all ages can make professional-looking graphs and charts with ease. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education, has created a free, easy-to-use graphing tool on its Kids’ Zone web site.

Sometimes, complicated information is difficult to understand and needs an illustration. Graphs or charts can help impress people by getting your point across quickly and visually.

From 3-dimensional bar graphs to pie charts and area graphs, it’s a breeze to input data at Kids’ Zone, and the output is as impressive as any chart ever produced by the father-of-charts himself, Ross Perot.

The most difficult step for students may be figuring out which style or format will best communicate their data. But never fear, the NCES has thought of this as well, offering a brief tutorial that explains when to use:

Line graphs: Line graphs are used to track changes over short and long periods of time. When smaller changes exist, line graphs are better to use than bar graphs. Line graphs can also be sued to compare changes over the same period of time for more than one group.
Pie Charts: Pie charts are best to use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole. They do not show changes over time.
Bar Graphs: Bar graphs are used to compare things between different groups or to track changes over time. However, when trying to measure change over time, bar graphs are best when the changes are larger.
Area Graphs: Area graphs are very similar to line graphs. They can be used to track changes over time for one or more groups. Area graphs are good to use when you are tracking the changes in two or more related groups that make up one whole category (for example public and private groups).
X-Y Plots: X-Y plots are used to determine relationships between the two different things. The x-axis is used to measure one event (or variable) and the y-axis is used to measure the other. If both variables increase at the same time, they have a positive relationship. If one variable decreases while the other increases, they have a negative relationship. Sometimes the variables don’t follow any pattern and have no relationship.

The NCES graphing tool also gives students a chance to control the look of their graph, including labels; font size and style, headers; and font, grid, and background color. A preview tab lets users check their creation prior to printing, downloading, or emailing. Graphs are saved on the site for 30-days from the last time viewed or edited.