Tuva enables students to make connections between the science classroom and their communities. We see value in diving into local data to leverage the learning you want to happen in your classrooms. In doing so, you also support the use of local data in classrooms throughout the country.
How can I use Tuva to leverage “local data” in my instruction?
1. Investigate widespread phenomena with data from your area
If you're studying a widespread phenomenon (e.g., weather), you can explore it using data from where you live, rather than from far away. Tuva provides a wide range of curated datasets, such as weather, earthquakes, river flow, air quality, sea-level, and day length, to help make that possible.
Let’s explore some examples we currently have:
- Interested in teaching about natural disasters? Check out Tsunamis from 1950 - 2014, Atlantic Hurricanes, Ring of Fire Earthquakes (1890-2011), or Tornadoes from 1996-2013, depending on where you live.
- Exploring the impacts of humans on wildlife? Consider using Loons and Mercury or Toxic Phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine, depending on where you live.
- Diving into a unit on weather? Check out Climate in US Cities, Historic Snowfall in the Northeast, or October Weather in US Cities, depending on where you live and what aspect of weather you want to explore.
If data from your region is not included in a dataset, let us know and we will work to find it for you.
2. Explore data to better understand your local area
If you are focused on learning about a particular location or on comparing places, students can investigate datasets about local issues, events, and phenomena. Tuva provides a wide range of specifically-curated datasets, many of which have been requested by educators in different locations.
We have numerous datasets that are local to cities, states, and regions, including:
- San Francisco Weather in October
- Corpus Christi and Hurricane Harvey
- Periodic Tides in Hawaii
- Kansas Earthquakes
- Fish Caught in Maryland
- Eastern Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures - along the West Coast
- STD Morbidity - US Northeastern Region
We also have datasets that make it easy to compare different locations, such as:
- US Milk Production By Region & State - compare by region or 50 states
- Precipitation in Washington and Maine - compare data among locations across two states
- Apple Production - compare apple production across eight states in 2010
- Climate in US Cities - compare across nine U.S. cities, Singapore, and Kitale, Kenya
3. Access uniquely local phenomena by exploring the data
There are some phenomena that are uniquely connected to one particular location (e.g., geyser eruptions). At Tuva, we provide a range of such datasets for you to explore.
Check out some of these examples:
- 2014-16 West Africa Ebola Outbreak - explore how the outbreak across countries
- August 21 2017 - Path of Total Solar Eclipse - compare various measurements of the moon and sun through the path of totality
- Ochre Sea Star Populations - keystone species counts in the rocky intertidal zone along the California coast over time
- Castine Tides 2013 - explore the extreme tides of Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy by visiting Castine, ME
If there is an interesting, unique phenomenon in your area that we don’t yet have a dataset for, let us know and we will work to find it for you.
4. Have your students upload their own “local data” into Tuva
Whether they collect data in their classroom or community or find data collected by a local citizen's group, it only takes a few minutes to upload it and visualize results. Check out our Importing Your Data into Tuva resource for more details.