Using Remote Sensing Technology, Web Casts, and Participation in a Valuable Research Project to Jazz Teachers and Excite Students About Science

Scientific education of primary and secondary school children has become a topic of concern in Ohio and throughout the United States. So with that in mind, how do you get students excited about learning science? One route is to inform and jazz teachers about current technology! The University of Toledo has hosted three one-week, NASA and OhioView sponsored professional development institutes entitled, Observing Earth from Space, for teachers from grades K-12 during July 2000, 2001, and 2002. Sixty-seven teachers from the Upper Midwest and Kansas with Earth Science, Social Studies, and Physics backgrounds attended. Each participant acquired new ideas, plenty of educational materials, and posters of satellite imagery. The teachers received basic training in remote sensing, global positioning systems, digital elevation models, and weather observing techniques and learned about useful remote sensing applications. This instruction was conducted through: 1) presentations given by research scientists, 2) integration of the learned content into authentic, hands-on lesson plans, and 3) participation in a learning adventure, where their students collected real-time earth science data at their respective schools while university research scientists gathered corresponding satellite imagery. The students observations were submitted via a simple Web interface: www.remotesensing.utoledo.edu. One of the very exciting platforms used to communicate with the teachers and students throughout the school year were live Web Casts sponsored by NASA Glenn Research Center. The students data have successfully assisted in the validation of cloud/snow remote sensing algorithms, and next year the students observations will include various surface temperature readings. The participation in a cutting-edge technology workshop and in an important global climate change research project, applicable in the classroom, has added another worthwhile dimension to the learning process and career awareness for both the teachers and their students.