United States electricity history in four charts

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 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 English lesson.
• About the Science
  This is an excellent visualization with links to actual data. The strengths of the data are the range of dates in the graphics, the clear language, and the excellent visualizations themselves. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
• About the Pedagogy
  This is an excellent visualization with links to actual data. The pedagogical strengths 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. Students may engage in the animation and may find it useful to see how the prime movers in electricity production have changed over time. This resource is informational in nature, and does not include any activity or pedagogical scaffolding.
• Technical Details/Ease of Use
  This animation works smoothly when opened on Chrome web browser. This is a very high quality visualization.