In this activity, students look at how much solar energy is generated by photovoltaic panels on rooftops or exposed ground locations at installations around the United States. They explore three different websites that monitor and report solar energy production from panels at many different locations. Next, they examine data from a single location, as well as compare data from two different locations. Lastly, they consider how much of a school's or home's energy needs could be supplied by solar power.
This short video, is the fifth in the National Academies Climate Change, Lines of Evidence series. It focuses on greenhouse gases, climate forcing (natural and human-caused), and global energy balance.
This video features three faculty from the University of Colorado, Boulder (Beth Osnes, Max Boykoff and James White) and CU students taking action with others to help mitigate climate change at a local level - making personal decisions about energy use and family size, educating the university community about actions that individuals can take, and developing materials to build sustainable housing.
This multi-part activity introduces users to normal seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) variation as well as extreme variation, as in the case of El NiÃo and La NiÃa events, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Via a THREDDS server, users learn how to download seasonal SST data for the years 1982 to 1998. Using a geographic information system (GIS), they visualize and analyze that data, looking for the tell-tale SST signature of El Nino and La Nina events that occurred during that time period. At the end, students analyze a season of their own choosing to determine if an El NiÃo or La NiÃa SST pattern emerged in that year's data.
In this activity students trace the sources of their electricity, heating and cooling, and other components of their energy use though the use of their family's utility bills and information from utility and government websites.
This activity includes an assessment, analysis, and action tool that can be used by classrooms to promote understanding of how the complex current issues of energy, pollution, supply and consumption are not just global but also local issues.
The Electricity data browser allows individuals and organizations to create, download, or view graphs, reports and tables based on energy data sets for 2001-2013 from the US Energy Information Administration. Data sets include generation and consumption, sales, costs and quality. Can choose various ways to represent these data sets. Note: This site is being updated based on feedback from users.