Research at Home: Large Data Sets

Mountains of data are at your fingertips and can be analyzed in new ways for your at-home research project

Locate a data set that interests you, see how others students have used large data sets in their research, and learn about current scientific studies fueled by big data.

Sources of Large Data Sets

US Government

Here you will find data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more.

US Census Bureau

The vision for data.census.gov is to make data available from one centralized place so that data users spend less time searching for data and content, and more time using it.

Amazon Web Services

This registry exists to help people discover and share datasets that are available via AWS resources.

Google

Provides statistics on search terms dating back to 2004.

National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA)

NCEI is responsible for preserving, monitoring, assessing, and providing public access to the Nation’s treasure of climate and historical weather data and information.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

DATA.NASA.GOV is NASA’s clearinghouse site for open-data provided to the public.

U.S. Geological Survey

The USGS Science Data Catalog provides seamless access to USGS research and monitoring data from across the nation. Users have the ability to search, browse, or use a map-based interface to discover data.

NASA Infrared Processing and Analysis Center

IRSA’s holdings consist of data products from NASA’s infrared and submillimeter projects and missions, as well as contributed data sets. These holdings include all-sky surveys in 20 bands, 88 billion rows of catalog data, 100 million images, and over 100,000 spectra.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Society Blog Posts about Large Data Sets

Big data: an essential tool in today鈥檚 classroom

The top three reasons to use big data

色色视频 Abstracts on Large Data Sets

Check out these projects in Behavioral and Social Sciences, Translational Medicine and Physics and Astronomy, three of the twenty-one Regeneron ISEF categories. See more 色色视频 abstracts by visiting the .

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Translational Medicine

Physics and Astronomy

Articles about Large Data Sets

Science News听补苍诲听Science News for Students are our award-winning publications that cover current advances across all STEM disciplines. We have gathered a collection of articles specifically on Large Data Sets to further shed light on this topic and provide inspiration for student research projects.

ICESat-2 measures ice and more from space

This new eye in the sky can detect changes in glaciers, ice sheets, forests and some clear lakes

Two lightning megaflashes shattered distance and duration records

The bolts captured by satellites more than doubled the previous records

What happens when you look at crime by the numbers

If used carefully, new math tools might may help improve policing and cut crime

Daily global CO2 emissions dropped dramatically as COVID-19 kept people home

Travel and other restrictions reduced daily carbon dioxide releases to 2006 levels by April

Most needy don鈥檛 attend free online courses

People who take MOOCs 鈥� free online college courses 鈥� are more likely to be wealthy and already well-educated

What data do cities like Orlando need to prepare for climate migrants?

The challenges of predicting where people will go to escape flooding, wildfires and drought

The data flood

The amount of recorded information grows by the split-second 鈥� and may be used to improve health care, change education and even boost store sales

Global progress in combating child malnutrition masks problem spots

Only 28 of 105 low- to mid-income countries are set to meet WHO鈥檚 2025 hunger-reduction targets

Cool Jobs: Data detectives

From health and the environment to sports, statisticians uncover valuable information that would otherwise remain buried in mountains of data

Analyze This: Seasonal hurricane costs have been rising sharply

Data tell the stories of hurricanes past

Analyze This: Zika and microcephaly

Hoping to learn more about Zika, scientists compared spikes in infections and in a birth defect

Holiday fireworks can bring extreme pollution, India finds

A short-lived spike in pollution may make breathing more difficult for nearby residents

Warming pushes lobsters and other species to seek cooler homes

In response to climate change, plants and animals are moving toward the poles, changing timing of important events and more

Antarctica鈥檚 melting speeds up

The continent has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992, raising global sea levels

Science News in High Schools Exercises to Start Exploring Big Data Sets

Students will work in groups to explore available data and research various aspects of climate change and then present their findings to the class.

Three activities give students the opportunity to use and interpret data to look for patterns in coral bleaching alerts.

Students will learn how to use an interactive online map of Mars and will identify features and make generalizations about Martian geography.

Students will work individually or in small groups to study different parts of the CDC website on opioids and summarize their findings for the class.

Students will review volcano monitoring data and learn how to use it to predict possible volcano behavior.