Top Down Project
List of Exercise Titles, Authors, and Objectives
Objectives:
Students will a) make an analog image of a section of the school grounds; b)
they will digitize their analog image; c) they will compare an analog and a
digital image.
Objectives:
- Students explore the electromagnetic spectrum, to study and compare
ultraviolet and infrared light and their effects on matter.
- Through the use of a TV remote control, students will investigate infrared
radiation, measure and compare its refractive and reflective characteristics.
Objectives:
- The students will explore different sources of light through observation to
establish a relationship between light, heat and color.
- Through the use of fickle foam-liquid crystal thermo-sensitive material-
and/or sun sensitive paper, students will begin to analyze the effects of light
and heat on matter and that color changes are a clue to the intensity of energy
being used or given off.
- Students will explore reflection and refraction and compare these properties
of light.
- Through the use of remote sensing images provided by NASA, students will
begin to identify where on the biosphere light is reflected the most, the
least, and how this information is useful.
Objectives:
- The students explore color changes through the use of different color
plastics and cellophane filters. The color of objects is recorded according to
the color change viewed through the different filters. Students predict
and record how each color filter actually affects viewing of each object.
- How do filters change the way the world looks? Students use color
filters over a flashlight beam, to shine different colored light on objects.
They compare their results to those previously recorded.
- Students "read" a remote sensing image using a color key composite to
identify how an infrared image may depict colors on the ground, differently
from those the human eye would perceive. Students learn to identify
different objects/landscapes using the color key provided.
Objectives:
Students lean how to read contour maps and, by extension, physical relief maps
by working through various activities of which some simulate contour mapping
and others require use of actual contour maps. These exercises will help the
students understand land forms and topography when looking at two-dimensional
maps and images, including remote sensing images.
Objectives:
- identify features on a remotely sensed image (RSI) then match
locations pinpointed on the image with pictures taken on the ground
- match locations on a remotely sensed image with an oblique photo taken
at those locations
- rationalize student matches in a class discussion
Hometown USA
by Brenda Hough and Margaret Young
Objectives:
Create a 3-D model of a town using easily
available materials provided by the students. Give students the opportunity to
view -ground truth- (what is actually seen by someone on the ground) versus an
aerial view. Students will be asked to tell which view is more accurate; which
view provides a better or clearer view of terrain features and land use; which
view is subject to distortion.
Objective:
Students gain a perspective of field of vision from a great height.
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.
Objective:
Students will find the height of object x using the ratio of the lengths
of shadows of two objects.
Objectives:
- Students will explore perception, via use of acetate transparent grids for
scale, proportion and measurement of distances.
- Students will use observation skills to identify characteristics of an object
at pre-determined intervals (5-meter spans up to 25-meter distances.)
- Students will identify remote sensing images of trees from different
altitudes, to compare the scales at which they are visible as an object,
vs. a reflection of temperature or color.
Objectives:
- obtain and record data using a remote sensing instrument (a
thermometer)
- make their own remotely sensed image of a square of the school grounds
- analyze the relationship between their remotely sensed image and the ground
location
Objective:
Students will experience what it is like to see only certain colors through "an
instrument package" and why those instruments can only produce only specific
colors on the pictures that they take.
Objectives:
- acquaint students with the concept of remote sensing
- encourage careful observation and recording
- practice classifying objects as biotic or abiotic
Objectives:
- Students build a simple spectrometer to analyze the diffracting patterns
of different types of light sources. They use diffracting lenses or other
alternate tools to observe how the light waves are bent at the microscopic
slits and spread into patterns of color, darkness and light.
- Using reflective properties, students sample different materials under
the same light intensity and source, to identify the reflective patterns of
different materials.
- Given a mystery material, students use the data previously collected to
identify it. Given a mystery light source, students match its
spectrographic pattern to identify it from a previously analyzed sample.
Students begin to identify the electromagnetic spectrum as a tool used by
scientists to identify patterns of color emitted from light sources or
reflective surfaces.
- Students use remote sensing images to study different sources of
reflected light on Earth and the characteristics needed to identify them.
Students are introduced to the concepts of infrared and ultraviolet
wavelengths, as those frequencies extending beyond the visible spectrum. Also,
they are introduced to the tools needed to analyze these frequencies,
as an extension of our eyes.
Objectives:
While some students portray individually assigned parts of the eye, others
assume the role of photons of light with different frequencies of color.
The entire group represent how a beam of light enters the eye, how each
part functions and how they interact.
Objective:
Students will discover how remote sensing is used to help
manage emergencies like the Oakland Hills Fire Storm 1991.
Objectives:
- acquaint students with the concept of remote sensing
- encourage careful observation and recording
- apply personal experience to hypothetical situations
Objectives:
- acquaint students with the concept of remote sensing
- encourage careful observation and recording
- focus student attention on changes in the environment
Objectives:
Students learn about changes that occur over time in given areas. They
learn that human actions and natural disasters such as earthquakes,
volcanoes, or floods, as well as a combination of them, are responsible for
these changes. By looking at maps, black and white and color photos and other
remote sensing images, the students will locate and discuss these
changes.
Objective:
Students discuss a certain land usage situation. What if a dam, a city, a
farming community, or a forest were placed here? This lesson gives
students the opportunity to see things from a "point of view" or special
interest. Through this process students, become more aware of the
complexity of issues surrounding land use and land management. Remote sensing
information will be available to help students defend their points of view or
challenge another group's claims.
Objectives:
Students observe objects in their everyday environment
and use symbolic pictures to show the objects in relation to each other.
Students also compare horizontal and aerial views of these same objects.
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