Looking at the Earth from Space:

Environmental science education activities for Grades 4-8.

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035
Earth System Science Division
Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch

Developed by: Robyn Myers

Theme:

The Earth System Sciences Division of the NASA Ames Research Center uses remote sensing techniques to study the Earth and its systems on the ground, in the air, and from space.

Summary:

By participating in classroom lessons and activities students will become aware of technology that enables scientists to "look" at the Earth and "see" more than can be seen with the human eye -- preparing them to participate in the NASA Ames Aerospace Encounter program.

Objectives:

After experiencing the lessons and activities students will be able to:

Define Remote Sensing as observing things from a distance and collecting information about them without touching them.
Explain that light energy comes from the sun. What we can see we see as color. What we cannot see with the human eye can be sensed by special instruments.
Name the three types of platforms used to hold remote sensing instruments: ground vehicles, airplanes, satellites or space craft.
Remote sensing can be in the form of photographs (analog data) that is primarily qualitative; or in the form of numeric values (digital data) that is primarily quantitative.
Describe that a Pixel is a picture element, like a square on a piece of graph paper, where remote sensors record information as numbers.
Explain that remote sensing can detect changes on the Earth's surface that occur over time, and name at least three: urbanization, deforestation, succession, etc.

The Lesson/Activities:

Lesson 1: Remote Senses

Lesson 2: A Piece of the Rainbow

Lesson 3: Looking at Things from a Distance

Lesson 4: Making Images

Lesson 5: Images of Our Changing Earth

Advanced Preparation:

Students should be prepared for introduction to the vocabulary listed below, and with the concepts of light and energy. (See Sections D and G of the Science Framework)

Students should be familiar with the idea of waves (as in water) and wavelengths (as in sound and energy).

Students should be familiar with basic ecology such as food chains/webs and energy transfer through an ecosystem. Concepts such as habitat and ecosystem, as well as properties of plants and animals should be familiar.

Duration:

30-50 minutes for each lesson and accompanying activity.

Materials:

Two prisms
6 or more Pans for water
6 or more Mirrors
Clear grid/graph paper
Graph paper
Large ball of yarn

Enough of the following materials for each student:

stiff cardboard
colored markers, paint or colored paper and glue
ruler
pencil
wooden toothpicks
drawing paper

Vocabulary:

electromagnetic
image
instrument
photograph
pixel
reflective radiation
remote sensing
vegetation
wavelength

California State Curriculum Framework Correlations:

See attached

Sources and Resources:

Aspen Global Change Institute: Ground Truth Studies Handbook. Education Coordinator - AGCI, 100 East Francis Street, Aspen, CO, 81611. (303)925-7376. 1991.

Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth, The Earth Works Group, Earthworks Press, 1989.

GAIA An Atlas of Planet Management, General Editor Dr. Norman Myers, Gaia Books, Anchor Press, 1984.

Earth System Science: A Program For Global Change, the Committee on Earth System Science, NASA, 1988.

New Visions of Earth: The Technology of Reading Our Planet, Teacher Packet and Exhibit Text, Denver Museum of Natural History, Colorado, on display 1988-89.

Science Framework for the California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, California Department of Education, 1990.

Seeing Earth From Space, Patricia Lauber, Orchard Books, New York, 1990.

State of the Ark, Lee Durrell, Gaia Books, Doubleday, 1986.

The Knowhow Book of Experiments, Heather Amery, Usborne Publishing, 1977.

The Reasons for Seasons - The Great Cosmic Megagalactic Trip Without Moving From Your Chair, Linda Allison, Little, Brown and Co., 1975.