Teaching Tips

• Teachers should read through the activity in its entirety to identify where the activity may fit in a curriculum.
• Listening to the podcast may be an out-of-class assignment.
• Visit the US Energy Information Administration website website to access the most recent data.

About the Content

• This educator guide helps understand the distinction between energy and electricity to better evaluate energy-related climate solutions.
• This is a data driven podcast that allows students to interpret graphs of energy use and draw conclusions based on the data.
• Background materials are present and laid out in an easily digestible manner.
• The data is from Energy Information Administration (EIA), and additional references are from reputable sources.
• Comments from expert scientist:
  Scientific Strengths: This educational resource includes educational guides, which are helpful for educators to utilize the information. It includes visual and listening engagement, as well as questions for students to explore. There are also creditable data sources used.
  Suggestions: The data being used is a bit outdated. The latest entry is from 2018, and seven years could be a lot for younger kids to associate to personal experience. Finding a resource that is more up-to-date, especially including what happened before and especially after COVID-19 pandemic can be very helpful for them to associate. Additionally, the energy structure changed significantly after the pandemic, especially the fast phase-out of the coal power plants.

About the Pedagogy

• This guide is really impactful because it includes a short podcast episode, an educator guide and teacher/student pages, including how to use podcasts in the classroom. The podcast and activity are simple, straightforward, interesting, and easy to use.
• The teaching guide lays out introduction questions, wrap up questions, and climate solutions.
• The general nature of this activity provides for flexibility in its implementation, but it lacks descriptions of how to support students with each of the five sections of the activity. Teachers will need to consider how best to provide this support.
• Because this is a podcast that students will be listening to, the difference in delivery of the material can be beneficial to students to get them to engage and might appeal to auditory learners.
• The activity is self contained, meaning that all the materials can be accessed from the website. Although students are analyzing "real" data, they may need support with the interpretation.

• This resource engages students in using scientific data.
  See other data-rich activities