How Can We Use These Photos?

Objectives:
Much of our understanding of our earth comes from simply looking at it. Remote sensing helps us with the big picture. Remote sensing photos can be used to plan the future. We can ask which way will a city grow or how will a new freeway affect farming areas. Remote sensing can also help show which way a fire moving or how fast lava from a volcano is flowing. The purpose of this exercise is to gather data from remote sensing pictures.

Grade Level: 4-5

Materials:

• Remote sensing images of your town or city with adjacent rural areas. Good web sources for such images are:

  Many pictures of our planet at many different scales may be found at an Earth Page on the WWW. (See also the NASA Spacelink connection at this location.)

  Look through NASA's Photo Gallery for more pictures closer to your school that you might use for this exercise.

  Also you can search for specific topics using the SEARCH botton located at the end of NASA's Ames Research Center Home Page.

  For this exercise, views of Santa Clara County in California, and the Alviso area are provided. Each group or individual playing a roll should have access to the images.
  

• Copies of simulation rolls each student will play (grouping of three); speaker, researcher, recorder

The Situation:
A developer wants to build 300 homes near existing wetlands. This land belongs to a couple and has been used as a farm. Some people are concerned that the development will affect the wetlands and others are worried that existing roads will not be able to accommodate new traffic.

Rolls:

• Planning Commissioners (3) - one favors growth, one is conservationist, one is unsure how the development should proceed. The commissioners must study and weigh the evidence and do what is best for the city.
  
• Mr./Ms. Eagle is a volunteer for the Fish and Game Department. He/she counts the birds each year. He/she is suspects that the added noise and the people will drive away wetland migrating birds.
  
• Mr. or Mrs. House are developers who don't feel his/her planned, new houses are close enough to the wetlands to hurt the birds and the new development can put hundreds of people to work for several years.
  
• Mr./Ms. Sells owns the property. They have managed to keep their farm productive long after most farmers left the area. Both are getting older and they want to retire. No one wants to buy the land and use it as a farm.
  
• Mr./Mrs. Store owns a convenience store and would like to expand and see the city grow.
  
• The Chamber of Commerce (up to five students) doesn't want to hurt the wetlands but does want new residents who will use the town's businesses and thereby improve the economy of the town.
  
• Pollution Solution is an environmental advocacy group that encourages people to use mass transit. The group fears that the new houses will cause too much congestion and more pollution.
  

Procedure:

• Day 1) Practice reading remote sensing images as a class. Choose groups.
  
• Day 2) Groups work together on pictures and prepare arguments using pictures and playing rolls.
  
• Day 3) Planning commission meets, hears testimony and comes to a decision. Each group is represented by a speaker playing one of the above rolls.
  

Extensions:
Have planning commission members visit your class. Invite local environmentalists to visit your class.

Change the simulation to an issue of importance to your locality.

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