Teaching Tips

• Consider using this graph to reinforce that we are living in a time of rapid change as it relates to electricity production in the United States.
• This animation and text can also be used to introduce a unit on energy and changes in energy use and production over time.
• These visualizations are of very high quality and can be used in multiple content areas.
• Math teachers should have students mine the data for specific pieces of the visualization. Science teachers can easily fit this into any climate change unit. And, the clear explanations of the history of each energy source would fit well into a social studies curriculum.
• This resource is not a stand-alone lesson so teachers can fit it into a climate change lesson or unit.
• Stories in this resource are compelling and could be wrapped into a social studies or language arts lesson.

About the Content

• This is an excellent visualization with links to real data. The strengths of the data are the range of dates in the graphics, the clear language, and the excellent visualizations themselves.
• Students may engage in the animation and find it useful to see how the prime movers in electricity production have changed over time.
• Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.

About the Pedagogy

• The pedagogical strengths of this resource are the visualizations themselves, the clear and balanced language, the range of dates the data covers, and the links to data and information sites.
• There is no indication of the intended age range, but this could be used in middle school or high school settings.
• This resource is informational in nature and does not include an activity or pedagogical scaffolding. Teachers should consider how best to embed it into other classroom activities.

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

Technical Details/Ease of Use

• This resource is easily accessed online.
• The visualizations are of a very high quality.

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