Kids as Airborne Mission Scientists

What is remote sensing ?

Related subject area: science

Overall problem: Are there active lava flows on Kilauea volcano?

Relationship of problem in this lesson to overall problem: At this point, students have developed a cursory understanding of what remote sensing is, e.g., the acquisition of information about an object, without being in physical contact with that object. However, to investigate where there are active lava flows on Kilauea, students need to develop a deeper understanding of how remote sensing works and how it is used to study the earth. The problem in this lesson is to develop a more precise definition of remote sensing and determine specifically how remote sensing can help investigate active lava flows on Kilauea.

Estimated time required: Three class periods.

Student outcomes/objectives:

  •  Students will be able to describe the basic elements and the process of remote sensing.

Prerequisite skills or knowledge:

  • Ability to work in teams
  • Basic understanding of problem solving
  • Basic reading skills
  • Basic presentation preparation skills

Teacher preparation:

  • Print Student Journal / Activity sheets for these activities.
  • Secure internet computers and projection equipment.
  • Gather enough red, pink, dark blue, and light blue pencils, markers, or crayons for students to use during the mapping activities.
  • Bookmark student website on student computers (if not available, print and copy necessary websites).

Student reflection and assessment: Student reflection activities | Assessment

Education standards supported by this lesson:

National Science Education Standards | Project 2061 Benchmarks

National Standards for School Mathematics | National Technology Standards | National Geography Standards

Cross-curricular connections to support National Education Standards for this lesson:

math | technology | geography
Teacher activities
 
Student activities
FRAME the lesson by having students experience remote sensing while drawing a sensory map of a prepared surface with different elevations and temperatures. 

Teacher preparation immediately prior to class:

  • Freeze water in several different size bowls.
  • Secure a few heating pads, heating pillows, or some other devices that will hold heat such as bags of potatoes or beans, heat in a microwave or some other means just prior to the activity.
  • Place the two or three of each of the hot and cold items in different locations on a table top space that is approximately 2 feet by 2 feet. 
  • Place a light cloth, with grids painted on it, over the objects.

Teacher note: You may want to set up several of these areas depending on the size of your class. This activity should proceed quickly so that the hot and cold zones do not equilibrate or dissipate before the students have a chance to sense them. 

Separate students into teams of two and provide them with work sheets with grids like the cloth.

Direct students, without any explanations, to do the following activity, using Activity sheet: Sensory map (RS-1).

  • Draw a topographic map of what they see on the table top, showing the differences in elevation evident on the table area.

Direct one student from each team to take turns slowly moving their hand closely over the top (not touching) of the area explaining what they feel (sense: hot and cold) while their teammate draws indications of the differences in temperature on their visible map.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student activities:

  • Students draw the topographical map of the prepared table top area on Activity sheet: Sensory map (RS-1).

  • Students indicate differences in temperature zones on their maps on Activity sheet: Sensory map (RS-1).

 
 
INFORM students of the relationship between the sensory map activity and remote sensing fundamentals. Students will begin to develop an understanding of remote sensing by relating the sensing map activity to remote sensing fundamentals – process and elements.

Prompt students to relate the sensing activity they just completed to the process of remote sensing.

  • What did you see in the area? 
  • Based on your sensing activity, what did the area look like? 
  • How were you able to draw a map of the differences in temperature?
  • What process did you have to go through to develop this sensory map? 

 

Prompt students to think about the necessity of airborne remote sensing.

Ask:

  • If the hot and cold regions were really big, how can you sense those areas?
  • If your sensing areas are inaccessible such as on other planets or dangerous like an erupting volcano, how can you sense those areas?
  • What types of instruments are needed to sense places like these?

Inform students that the activity they just completed is representative of how remote sensing instruments work. Now that they have seen an example of remote sensing, they will further explore each of the elements of remote sensing and how they work together to provide scientists with the data they need to study the earth. Your goal is to develop a detailed drawing and description of how remote sensing works.

  

 

 

 

Sample student responses:

  • A 2 ft. by 2 ft. area with high and low points, the location of the high and low points.
  • Different parts of the area were either hot, warm, cool, or cold, and the location of temperature boundaries.
  • Moving my hand over the area, I could feel (prompt for "sense") changes in temperature and I gave that information to my teammate who indicated the changes on the map.
  • First we drew a picture of what we saw, then we gathered temperature information by waving our hands over the area (not touching it), and transferred that information onto our map.

 

Sample student responses:

  • Sense large areas from the air or space. 
  • Airborne and space-borne remote sensing instruments could be used to sense large, inaccessible, or dangerous areas.
 
EXPLORE the elements and process of remote sensing. In this activity, students will develop a scientific description of the remote sensing process using the sensory activity completed previously as a reference. This level of understanding will help them learn the correct terminology for discussing remote sensing.

Direct students to explore the following website. The goal of this activity is to relate the previous sensory activity to the processes and the elements of remote sensing.

Divide students into several groups and provide the following instructions:

Teacher resources:

  

 

 

 

Student activities:
 
TRY using new knowledge to apply new understanding of remote sensing to the Kilauea volcano mission.

Ask how do you think we can use remote sensing to identify where active lava flows are on Kilauea?

  • Prompt for element and process responses, such as to sense the heat or reflected light from lava using airborne remote sensing instruments.

Prompt students to think about what they just learned about remote sensing and develop a model of how the remote sensing will be used to identify where the active lava flows are on Kilauea. They should draw and label the picture of the remote sensing process and respond to the questions on the Activity sheet: Applying your understanding (RS-4).

Discuss student maps and responses to questions.

Remind students to complete the Activity sheet: Reflection page (RS-5) in their student journal for this lesson.

Discuss next lesson: 

  • We just learned the about the basic elements and processes of remote sensing.

Ask:

  • What questions do you still have about remote sensing?
  • How does remote sensing give scientists images of things we can't see such as "hot" and "cold" areas?

Summarize lesson by stating that these questions are what we will investigate in the next lesson.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student activities:

 

  • Students complete the Activity sheet: Reflection page (RS-5) in their student journal for this lesson.

 

 

 

Sample responses:

  • How does remote sensing actually work?
  • What needs to be considered when planning a remote sensing missions?
  • Is data better collected during the day or night? 
  • How high should the aircraft be when collecting data?
  • What angle should the instruments be looking at the target?
  • Remote sensing instruments collect energy that is emitted or reflected by targets.
 
Student reflection activities:
  • Prompt students to relate their understanding of remote sensing to the volcano mission.
  • Prompt students to record the questions they have, the information they think they know, and ideas for additional investigation of the problem in their reflective journal. 

Assessment:

  • Students define remote sensing.
  • Students identify the key components and processes of remote sensing, including:
    • Energy source
    • Propagation upward of EM energy 
    • Recording of energy by the sensor
    • Receiving and processing station
    • Procession, interpretation, and analysis
  • Students demonstrate their understanding of how the basic concepts of remote sensing relate to the volcano mission. 

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Ideas for math lesson connections:

  • Students draw maps to scale of the 2 ft. by 2 ft. surface area. 
  • Students calculate the area and perimeter of the hot and cold regions on their sensory map.

Related National Education Math Standards:

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Ideas for geography lesson connections:

  • Students research, list, and describe the numerous ways in which remote sensing is used to study the earth.
  • Students learn how to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to study the earth. Free GIS software and support is available for download from the Environmental Systems research Institute (ESRI).  

Related National Education Geography Standards:

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Ideas for technology lesson connections:

  • Students research active verses passive remote sensing and compare the two processes.

Related National Education Science Technology Standards:

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Activity sheet: Defining the elements (RS-2) - answer key

1. Definition - What is remote sensing? (In your own words)

  • Remote sensing is the science (and to some extent, art) of acquiring information about the earth's surface without actually being in contact with it. This is done by sensing and recording reflected or emitted energy and processing, analyzing, and applying that information (Reference-http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/eduref/tutorial).

2. Elements - What are the main elements of remote sensing?

                  

Element in the tabletop mapping activity

This element in the tabletop area is similar to what element in the remote sensing website?

This element represents what part of the remote sensing process?
Part of remote sensing

Hot and cold items under the surface 

Objects on earth's surface

Energy source

Temperatures emitted from hot and cold items 

Emitted energy 

Propagation upward of EM energy

Hand waving over the surface area

Satellite, sensor on board

Recording of energy by the sensor 

Students describing what they are feeling while waving their hands over the surface area

Antenna 

Receiving and processing station

Topographical and sensory map of area

Computer

Processing , interpretation and analysis

Activity sheet: Remote sensing process cycle (RS-3) - answer key

Draw and label a picture of how remote sensing works. Be sure to include energy sources, targets, remotes sensing instruments, transmission of data, interpretation of data, and application of data (final version).

  Remote Sensing Process  

Activity sheet: Applying your understanding (RS-4) - answer key

Apply your understanding of remote sensing to the Kilauea volcano mission.*

1. What might be sensed from the Kilauea volcano to tell where the active lava flows are?

  • Heat and lava

2. What are the possible energy sources on a Kilauea volcano mission?

  • Sunlight reflected from rocks or plants on the surface of the volcano. 
  • Heat emitted from sun-warmed surfaces. 
  • Heat emitted by active lava flows . 

3. Where will the remote sensing instruments be sensing from during the investigation of Kilauea?

  • NASA aircraft

4. What might the final data look like?

  • Airborne images of Kilauea volcano showing the volcano features and locations of heat, steam, lava, plants, rocks, etc. in different colors. The images will show characteristics that we may not be able to see with our eyes.

5. Draw and label a picture of the remote sensing process for studying Kilauea. Be sure to include the energy sources, remote sensing instruments, the transmission of data, and data processing.

  • The student picture should have an indication of an aircraft over the Kilauea volcano, energy sources including the sun and lava, transmission of sensory information from the volcano surface to the aircraft (remote sensing instrumentation), data analysis stations, and some indication of the data in a final form. 

 

 

* Teacher note: The above answers are a few of the possible student responses. It is recommended that you review the following websites: http://www.pgd.hawaii.edu/~scott/rsens1.htm

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rev 5.17.01