Introducing Laramie Junior High School Students to Remote Sensing Concepts and Applications

One hundred and fourteen students in Ron Whitman’s eight grade physical and seventh grade biological sciences classes (three class periods each on April 4^th and 5^th, 2012) learned how remotely sensed images are acquired in different regions of the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and their uses for monitoring earth surface features such as trees, crops, bare ground, water, roads, buildings, etc.

WyomingView coordinator Ramesh Sivanpillai described the differences in the interaction of earth surface features with EMR, and how those interactions result in their appearances or colors.  Students learned the uses of images collected by satellites and airplanes for monitoring the effects of beetle attacks on pine trees, deforestation, crop growth, and changes in the surface areas of lakes and reservoirs.  Mr. Whitman commented that the presentation helped “students understand the use of different electromagnetic waves for practical applications.”

In the lab, students working in teams used ALTA ™ Spectrometers to measure spectral reflectance in 10 different regions of EMR.  Next, they calculated percent reflectance values, which were then plotted against wavelength to generate the spectral signature for each leaf.  Analyses of these signatures led the students to conclude that the spectral signature of each leaf was distinct.

Hands-on lab component for measuring and calculating “percent reflectance of the four types of leaves at different wavelengths, actively engaged the students the entire lab time” Mr. Whitman said.  Sivanpillai explained the differences in the spectral signatures of different earth surface features and remote sensing scientists rely on these signatures for mapping those features.

This educational outreach activity was conducted as part of AmericaView’s Earth Observation Day activities aimed at introducing teachers and students to remote sensing science and applications.

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Using satellite images, 5th and 6th grade students in a Laramie (WY) School learn about human impact on environment

With the help of satellite images fifth and sixth grade students at Mr. Tim Blum’s geography class (photo below) at the UW Lab School got a birds-eye view of how humans have impacted or modified their environments (31 January 2011).  Images acquired by satellites decades apart showed cleared forests, irrigated crop fields in the middle of the deserts, altered landscapes (new roads and water bodies), and urban growth.

As part of the Earth Observation Day (EOD) activities, WyomingView coordinator Ramesh Sivanpillai described the utility of images acquired by satellites are useful for monitoring changes on earth’s surface.   For example, Landsat images acquired in 2000 (bottom left) and 2009 (bottom right) shows the newly constructed roads (linear features), drilling pads (square features at the end of the roads), and ponds (in different shades of blue) for an area within the Powder River Basin.

The goal of EOD activities is to introduce teachers and students to remote sensing science and technology and is promoted by AmericaView.  Sivanpillai works with individual teachers in Laramie-area schools and develops remote sensing course materials that relate to the topics taught to students.

Blum and his student teachers introduced students to the human impact on the environment.  The remote sensing “presentation fit with our curriculum and the students were captivated,” Blum commented.  “Your presentation certainly made an impression on our students because the information you provided was referenced in several discussions that occurred later in our unit.”  Tailoring materials to individual class needs increases student engagement and learning.

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Earth Observation Day - April 8th, 2011

Last year I posted about AmericaView's 2010 Earth Observation Day, an education and outreach event designed to support K-12 and undergraduate teachers in their use of geospatial science and technology in interdisciplinary STEM education. Building on our success in 2010, AmericaView is hosting Earth Observation Day 2011 on April 8th. The focus again this year is on freely available Landsat data and the many interesting and exciting applications that teachers and their students can use to better understand the world around them. A Very Spatial podcast describing the project provides more detail.

To support Earth Observation Day (EOD) 2011, AmericaView has developed a web site that hosts educational resources and statewide Landsat posters of all 50 states. The educational resources span K-12 from kindergarten to high school, and can be adapted for use at the undergraduate level as well. Lesson plans are provided that feature the use of puzzle games of matching Landsat images, and lesson plans that use Google Earth to explore the land use patterns around schools, including a lesson that introduces land cover mapping. For an excellent introduction to the field of geospatial science and technology, the Geospatial Revolution Project at Penn State Public Broadcasting recently created a series of on-line episodes that teachers can use as background.

We hope that teachers and students find these resources to be both exciting and powerful as a way to introduce geospatial science and technology into the classroom.

Enjoy the event, and let us know what you think.

The AmericaView EOD Team

AmericaView's Earth Observation Day 2010

Satellite images have become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, even if many of us don’t realize it. Whether you see them on the evening news, on the Weather Channel, on the internet, or in some other venue, satellite images are practically everywhere. They permeate the modern media, in advertising, in television series, and at the movies. In scientific and technical disciplines, images are used to forecast water shortages, to predict crop yields, and to monitor forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and earthquake damage. Yet, despite their pervasive nature, most of us know very little about how satellite images are acquired, processed, and analyzed.

Earth Observation Day, a cooperative educational project between AmericaView and the U.S. Geological Survey, aims to change this. Working with both K-12 and undergraduate students and faculty, AmericaView and the USGS are embarking on a national outreach and education effort that introduces students to the power and excitement of remote sensing, engaging them in lessons and activities that take the mystery out of remote sensing and connect it STEM education at all levels of the K-12 curriculum. Clearly the need is well recognized – American students rank below students in many other countries in the critically important STEM disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. However teachers often don’t have the knowledge, materials, or support necessary to introduce remote sensing into the science, geography, mathematics, and social science curriculum, even though the ‘fit’ can be made seamlessly and in a way that engages students in active, participatory learning.

The idea behind Earth Observation Day is to fill this need in each of AmericaView’s state partners. Working together, AmericaView, the StateViews, and the USGS have developed educational materials and a web site to host and support the event. The site provides remote sensing educational materials, and links to other resources such as posters, texts, on-line image galleries, and much more.

As examples of activities that occurred on March 24th, 2010, the first official AmericaView Earth Observation Day, Dr. Tom Mueller, associate professor at California University of Pennsylvania, lead a land use / land cover mapping exercise with 150 students. They identified a U.S. university of their choice, and created a map that they could use to determine the ‘livability’ of the area (green space, proximately to public land, etc.). Dr. Mueller, who directs Cal U’s GIS Club, challenged the students in the AmericaView Remote Sensing Image Memory game, followed by a Landsat cake.



Students at Laramie Junior High, Wyoming, were introduced to remote sensing and application satellite images through a lecture titled “Earth Observation – An Introduction to Remote Sensing.” Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai of WyomingView spent two days and talked to 112 students in six 8th grade physical science classes. Among other topics, the students learned about satellite sensors and electromagnetic spectrum, and how unique information exists in wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye. They also learned about the career opportunities available in remote sensing.



In West Virginia, Dr. Rick Landenberger, AmericaView Executive Director, spent the day at Oak Glen High School, talking with 107 students in 9th grade physical science and 10th grade biology classes. After a lecture on remote sensing principles, the students helped Dr. Landenberger map the land cover within their local watershed using a Landsat scene draped over aerial imagery in Google Earth. The students will follow this with a field day to nearby Tomlinson Run State Park, where they’ll collect land cover ground reference data to check their maps, ultimately linking land use – land cover to water quality and quantity as part of a larger GLOBE project.



These are a few of the organized activities that occurred. The web site offers lessons and activities that can be implemented with very little technical knowledge of remote sensing. In future years the AmericaView consortium and USGS plan to develop more coordinated projects, perhaps linking to GLOBE through a coordinated land cover mapping field campaign, like the MUC-A-THONS developed by New Hampshire View and GLOBE Land Cover PI Dr. Russ Congalton.