Data Skills in Geography is a two year programme at the Royal Geographical Society, supported by funding from the Nuffield Foundation. The project summary explains some of the background:

“The ability to understand and interpret data is an essential feature of life in the 21st century: vital for the economy, for our society and for us as individuals. The ubiquity of statistics makes it vital that citizens, scientists and policy makers are fluent with numbers. Data analysis is revolutionising both how we see the world and how we interact with it.”
(Count Us In, British Academy, 2015)
Recent changes in curricula in schools and at university, along with a recognised skills gap, have brought renewed emphasis on students being trained in data skills (the collection, analysis and presentation of data) in geography at GCSE, A Level and in undergraduate courses. The shift is presenting new challenges for many school teachers, particularly those with little prior experience of such skills. In response to these changes and challenges, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) is leading a two year programme Data Skills in Geography (2015-17).

My ongoing series of cartograms in Geographical is amongst the material and resources featured on the project’s main website. You find them at http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Data+skills+in+geography/Gridded+Cartograms.htm with links back to the original Geographical contributions.

For those with more interested in the role of quantitative methods in geography, the following RGS report is worth reading:
Harris, Richard et al (2013) Quantitative Methods in Geography: Making the Connections between Schools, Universities and Employers. London: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

And for those with an interest in maps, here is something I wrote about the topic as a contribution to a research and fieldwork methods book:
Geographic visualization in social sciences: Draw more maps!

Last but not least, gridded cartograms and the methodological background are explained in this book:
Hennig, Benjamin D (2013). Hennig, Benjamin D (2013). Rediscovering the World: Map Transformations of Human and Physical Space. Heidelberg / New York / Dordrecht / London (Springer).