Announcing the latest Tuva Collection on the United States Government

What are the underlying foundations of the United States government? What are the functions of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government and how do they work with each other? Who are the 8 chief justices currently in the United States Supreme Court? What are the demographics of our Senate and the House of Representatives?

Today, we are excited to announce the latest Tuva Collection on the US Government for Tuva Premium subscribers. The US Government  collection enables students to learn and critically think about the different aspects of the federal government through the lens of data.

United States Capital

Some of the current datasets and activities in the US Government collection include:

  1. The demographics of the Senate and House of Representatives
  2. Past presidents of the United States
  3. Executive orders and vetoes by past presidents
  4. The Electoral College and past election results

These datasets and activities are just a start. Over the coming months, we will continue to curate and publish new datasets and activities that you can use in your math, social studies, english, and other classes to explore various aspects of the US government with your students.

We are just over a month into the new administration in the White House. The US Government collection is a fantastic way to meaningfully engage our students in important civics issues through the lens of data.

Thank you for your data stories Professor Hans Rosling

Yesterday a data visionary, public educator, and storyteller Professor Hans Rosling passed away in Uppsala, Sweden.

Dr.Rosling was a professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. He founded the Gapminder Foundation in 2005, and decided to dedicate his time and energy to use data and statistics to debunk myths and provide a truer picture of our world.

In his 10 TED Talks — the most ever by a single person — he addressed critical global issues such as population growth, child mortality, poverty, and many others through the lens of data and simple statistics.

There has never been a more important time to enable our students and future global citizens to think critically about information, ask questions, use data as evidence, and have the ability to make sense of data and statistics they encounter every day.

All of us at Tuva have been greatly inspired by Professor Rosling’s vision and work, and in his passing, we are doubling down on our mission to make data and statistics accessible and usable for all.

Thank you Professor Hans Rosling, for your data stories and all your inspiration!

Sincerely,
The Tuva team

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Tuva for NGSS or: How to Bring Today’s Climate Science News Into the Classroom.

A few days ago, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued a press release announcing that globally averaged Carbon Dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have reached the symbolic and significant milestone of 400 parts per million (ppm) for the entire year. The UN agency made a bold prediction, painted a bleak picture if the trend continues, and declared that this marks the start of a new era of climate reality.

From the WMO press release:

“CO2 levels had previously reached the 400 ppm barrier for certain months of the year and in certain locations but never before on a global average basis for the entire year. The longest-established greenhouse gas monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, predicts that CO2 concentrations will stay above 400 ppm for the whole of 2016 and not dip below that level for many generations.”

Next Generation Science Standards & Enabling Students to Explore CO2 Data

Did you know that the historical Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide data from the Mauna Loa Observatory is in the Tuva Datasets Library?

Tuva’s Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (1958-2015) (Tuva Premium subscribers only) dataset enables your students to wear the hat of a meteorologist.  Students can easily explore, visualize, analyze, and model the atmospheric Carbon Dioxide data from the Mauna Loa observatory, just like the meteorologists at WMO.

They can explore critical questions such as:

a. How has the globally averaged CO2 levels increased over the last 50 years?
b. When did the average CO2 level first past the 400ppm threshold?
c. How does the average CO2 levels vary by seasons, and why?
d. If this increasing trend continues, what will be the global average CO2 levels in 2050?

Cultivating students’ scientific habits of mind, building their capability to engage in scientific inquiry, and engaging them in practices that reflect those of scientists, researchers, and engineers is one of the primary goals of the Next Generation Science Standards.

At this watershed moment in climate science and human history, Tuva enables you to realize this vision with your students.

Introducing the Second Tuva Science Collection — Atmosphere

“Have lights when other men are blind

As pigs are said to see the wind”

Aside from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s claim (paraphrasing William Butler), of all Earth systems, the atmosphere can be one of the hardest for (non- pig) students to perceive.

Although we breathe in atmosphere every minute, its chemistry, layers, air masses, and patterns of movement occur at large scales and are often invisible.

We can feel the wind, but how can we discern its large-scale geographical and temporal patterns? Through data, of course!

Following up from the release of our first Tuva Science Collection on Earth in Space,  today we are excited to introduce Tuva’s second science collection – Atmosphere.

Typhoon Halong Seen from the International Space Station
Typhoon Halong Seen from the International Space Station

The Atmosphere Collection includes datasets and activities that explore differences among vertical layers in the atmosphere, geographic variability in atmospheric pollutants, and temporal changes in components of the atmosphere such as the stratospheric ozone layer.

Some of the activities also explore weather and climate data to make sense of how air masses move.

Key ideas supported by datasets and activities in Tuva’s Atmosphere Collection include:

  • The size of the Antarctic ozone hole changes seasonally and is correlated with atmospheric concentrations of CFCs.
  • Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other pollutants have increased during recent decades, as has human population.
  • Relationships between different atmospheric parameters can be modeled and predicted mathematically.
  • Air masses can transport pollutants from source areas to distant non-source areas.  
  • Human actions to mitigate air pollution can improve air quality.

The activities support NGSS performance expectations, such as exploring evidence for how motions and interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions (MS-ESS2-5), or analyzing geoscience data to forecast of the rate of change in the ozone hole (HS-ESS3-5).

These activities also support a number of CCSS-Math standards such as modeling relationships with linear equations.

Don’t forget to give your students opportunity to explore data on their own to make their own discoveries. Help your students learn to “see the wind” — through data!

The Earth in Space and Atmosphere collections are available for Tuva Premium Subscribers.