The examples below, demonstrate that satellite remote sensing applications on education can stimulate your students’ interest to solve and analyse environmental, physics and mathematics problems.

Land Cover Change Analysis

Subject:
Duration: 45 minutes
Level: Junior & Senior (14 - 18 years)

Main goal

Students can track changes to the landscape over time and realise the man footprint.

Tools

PCs with downloaded Landsat images and installed Multispec software (see How to organise this in your classroom)

Description

This lesson is designed for senior high school students and can be implemented in different areas. The lesson will guide students in the process of analysing land cover change, using Landsat images.

Firstly, the teacher introduces the impacts (increase of surface temperature, environmental deterioration, etc.) of land cover changes to local and global climate to his or her students. Subsequently, students discuss in small groups ways of monitoring and detecting changes in the environment, while the teacher leads the discussions to Earth observation by Satellite images. Students then use the Multispec image processing software and two Landsat images from two different time periods. Each group of students experiments with the band combinations and discusses which band combination is better for detecting land cover changes.

Students use the natural colour band combination, in which the changes are clearly depicted. A qualitative analysis regarding the extent of land cover change during the time period between image acquisitions follows. Students have to identify areas of change in land cover and analyse their spatial distribution in their city. 

After the above data analysis and processing, students will be able to answer and discuss in groups the following questions:

• Do you see any changes in the land cover?
• Can you recognise the use associated with the change?
• Can you think of any reason that the change in land cover took place in that specific area?
• Did the vegetated areas increase or decrease?
• Are any of the changes connected to urbanisation?

An application for the city of Athens is given below on the basis of Landsat images which support the definition of land cover changes between the years 1994-2010.

 

A tutorial can be found here

Additional info and ideas here

 

 

Climate Research Campaign: satellite data in climate change education

Subject:
Duration:45 minutes 
Level: Junior & Senior

Main Goal

• Improve students’ ICT competencies through the search for information, such as satellite data related to climate change.

• Learn and understand the use of mathematics.

• Understand phenomena like 'Earth's Atmosphere' 

 

Tools

Adequate technical resources (computers, GPS devices, etc.), Internet connection

Description

This project consists of various lesson scenarios that are ready to use and are related to environmental phenomena and problems. The developed scenarios are based on the use of satellite data and students use the Internet as a source of information for the scenarios.

Since the project was implemented in close cooperation with teachers who developed lesson scenarios and tested them with their own students, teachers only have to choose a topic of their interest and follow the well organised and detailed materials.

An example of a developed scenario concerns the impact of climate change in the Arctic ecosystem, while the shrinking of the sea ice coverage in the Northern Hemisphere is studied with multitemporal satellite images.

The project was conducted in the frame of module C of the Climate research Campaign, which is part of the Globe Program in Poland.

For more information see the MASS website or the GLOBE Program in Poland

  

Materials in a city

Subject: 
Duration: 45minutes
Level: Junior & Senior (13 - 16 years)

Main goals

To understand the properties of certain materials as they influence the microclimate in cities.

Tools

A landsat image in the visible band, a table with colour, reflectivity and materials.

Description

The teacher introduces to students the theoretical background of solar radiation principles (reflection, absorption, etc.) and explains the relation between these and the thermal environment that we live in.

Students solve a simple radiation problem such as:

Problem 1:

Solar radiation falls at a body. Part of the solar radiation is absorbed, contributing to warm up the body, and the rest is reflected. Reflectivity is measured in percentages and the combination of reflectivity and absorption must add up to 100%.

If 1000 watts of radiation falls on a body, and the reflectivity measured is 300 watts, what is the reflectivity of the body? Can you guess the material?

Students in small groups open a Landsat image in the visible band (channel 3) that depicts the reflected radiation of the surface. The teacher explains that different colours (different reflectivity) represent different materials. Using the table below, students match the colours in the image with the respective materials and reflectivity.

Subsequently, students answer Problem 2.

Problem 2:

• Find the difference in reflectivity between the darkest and the brightest area. What do these materials represent?

• Can you find on the image the material that corresponds to the reflectivity found in Problem 1?

A satellite image depicting the reflectivity for the city of Athens is given below, along with the colour scale of the image and the reflectivity of common urban materials.

Material	Reflectivity	Image Colour
Water	0.02-0.05
Trees	0.05-0.1
Grass	0.1-0.15
Asphalt	0.12-0.17
Roofs	0.15-0.2
White roofs	0.15-0.20
Metal roofs	0.3-0.35

 

 

A tutorial can be found here

Find more good practices at www.mass4education.eu/teaching-materials/good-practices