Teaching Tips

• Flow charts provide a good perspective on how dependent the US is on fossil fuels to power commerce, industry, and transportation.
• Educator should make sure students understand how the flow charts work, how energy is being created and used in each box, and what 'rejected energy' is.
• Quad units are not explained and are complicated - educators need to clarify this to students.
• Flow charts could be an important part of a lesson on energy use and waste in the United States.

About the Content

• It is striking to note the large amount of 'rejected energy' or energy wasted due to inefficiencies in energy generation and internal combustion in transportation.
• Comments from expert scientist: The information provided is regarded as highly reliable scientifically. The information is regularly used in energy policy and scientific study. There is no significant educational activity associated with this web site. The web site merely displays charts for the past several years and provides a report with similar information on the state level.

About the Pedagogy

• Educator can very quickly see where our energy originates, where it is used, and how that has changed, or not, over the interval displayed.
• The data is presented in an appealing format, which will be engaging for students.
• Some terminology may need explaining, such as 'rejected energy'.

Technical Details/Ease of Use

• The graphics are high quality and the visualization can be downloaded or viewed online.
• The quality is best if downloaded as a pdf.
• Each flow chart can be enlarged by clicking on the chart.

Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN