Electricity Data Browser

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

• Teaching Tips
  Consider using this tool to represent evidence in support of a hypothesis and as a resource to generate new hypotheses. Challenge students to ask why certain trends in energy production and use have changed over time, and support statistical analysis skills in analyzing large datasets. This visualization could help students understand how the US energy profile has changed over the past few decades. It's easy to see what we are using more and less of. It could also be used to teach about how changing the scale or focus of a graph can change the way that data appears.
• About the Science
  This interactive chart allows users to quickly visualize energy trends in the US by source, use, export, and quality over time including tabs for cost, stock, and market price. Users can toggle between charts, or view pre-generated reports. This resource could be used to generate and answer hypotheses related to energy and the US economy. All charts can be downloaded in a PDF file, and raw data can be downloaded in CSV format for further statistical analysis. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
• About the Pedagogy
  This has the potential to be a very useful teaching tool. In order to use this resource in a lesson, students need to understand how to interpret graphs and need to know a little about how energy systems work. This resource does not include a lesson plan and may be best suited for college-level classrooms that are comfortable working independently with large datasets. Data can be downloaded in CSV format and used for statistical analysis activities.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  Educators should be aware that this resource includes no pedagogical structure and that some students without experience in large datasets may feel overwhelmed. This resource is technically sound and relatively intuitive to use.