In our daily lives, we're bombarded with all kinds of graph and figures. How can we make sense of them? The PPSTT framework was developed with researchers based on how they digest information in figures they encounter every day. This video is a think-aloud insider's look at how three ecologists analyze a figure they've never seen. This offers "cognitive apprenticeship" for students (or anyone), to learn how to gather clues from a figure, one step at a time, to put together a whole story. The final step is to assess whether we trust the story the figure and the data are telling us based on where it comes from and how it is conveyed. PPSTT stands for: • Patterns: What does your eye tell you? • Prompts: What are the words on the axis, title, and caption that give you clues about how to interpret the figure? • Strange: What sticks out? Did you notice weird axes, missing data points, outliers, or other oddities? • Takeaway: What's the story? How would you describe the main conclusions to a family member in a sentence or two? • Trust: Do you trust the takeaway given your analysis and what you know about the data source or who produced the figure? What other information do you want to know? What questions remain?