Tag Archives: Earth Science Everywhere

Dear Teachers: Part 5 – Exploring Water Use and Quality

By AmericaView, Dear Teachers, Environmental Change, Imagery, Landsat, Lesson Plan, Remote Sensing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In today’s lesson, we are examining water use and water quality. Satellite imagery helps scientists to better understand the changes in the environment. Examine the images below of the Aral Sea; the left image is from April 10, 1986, and the right image is from June 5, 2024. The water loss between the two images is striking. Once, the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake in the world; however, the Soviet Union diverted two major rivers to irrigate farmland (human water use), cutting off the inland sea from its water source in the 1960s.

What a difference 35 years can make!?!

Images from the lesson

We continue our odyssey, exploring the lessons of the 2024 Earth Observation Day poster, “Earth Science Everywhere.“ The lesson fulfills the NGSS MS-ESS3-3 standard. Students will examine how humans impact earth systems through water use and quality. Human activities can significantly alter the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural ecosystems. Changes to Earth’s environment can have different impacts (negative and positive) on other living things. Humans can perform activities and invent technologies to mitigate or prevent negative impacts on the Earth.

The Aral Sea is located in western Asia in the counties of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

After discussing the images, students will be asked to read an article from the NASA Earth Observatory website: “World of Change: Shrinking Aral Sea,” to learn more about what caused this water loss and view a time-lapse video of the shrinking sea. Next, students will have a chance to use Google Earth to investigate the shrinking of the Aral Sea with measurement tools and various years of imagery and create their own time-lapse videos as time permits. After that, as the lesson wraps up, students will learn about environmental protection careers. Finally, an online game or printable quiz is available to test students’ comprehension of the main topics of the lesson.

To download the lesson:https://ckan.americaview.org/data/AmericaView/EOD/2024_eod_water.pdf

To view the 2024 EOD poster and other lesson plans: https://ckan.americaview.org/dataset/2024-earth-observation-day-poster

View related posts:
Part 4: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-part-4-identify-local-natural-hazards-to-prevent-powerful-disasters/
Part 3: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-part-3-a-lesson-about-forestry/
Part 2: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-part-2-exploring-the-electromagnetic-spectrum/
Part 1: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-2025-a-review-of-av-teaching-resources/

Dear Teachers: Part 3 – A Lesson about Forestry

By Dear Teachers, Earth Observation Day, Education, Environmental Change, Landsat, Lesson Plan, Remote Sensing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As we continue our series unpacking the lessons of the 2024 Earth Observation Day poster, “Earth Science Everywhere.” Today we are going to explore the forestry lesson, “Exploring Amazonian Deforestation,” which seeks to engage students in an examination of how human activities modify the natural environment. This lesson can be used to fulfill the National Council of Geographic Education (NCGE) Standards 1, 3, and 14 (see lesson plan for details).

Lesson Plan Background Information:

Scientists have been using satellite imagery to track the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest for several decades. The clearing of the rainforest has changed over time, both in its pace and its location. For two decades, beginning in the 1990s, agriculture, forestry, and mining development proceeded rapidly. Satellite-based forest monitoring has enabled successful enforcement of forestry management practices, where such practices are applied. The Landsat image pair on the front of the Earth Observation Day poster shows the change in land use that occurred between 2001 and 2019, when palm oil plantations replaced rainforest in Peru. Illegal forest clearing is constantly adapting to new monitoring practices, and is still occurring across the region. Satellite imagery helps scientists and governments to monitor shifts in deforestation and develop new deterrence strategies.

Image 1: What’s going on in these pictures?
Images from the lesson plan

This is a great lesson for teaching students how satellite images can show the impact deforestation can have on a community. The lesson is broken into two sessions. The first session is focused on engaging students with satellite imagery. The first exercise asks students to look at two images and explain what is going on (see Image 1). The images are showing the landscape change associated with rainforest deforestation. Next students get to use the Landsat App, an online browser based tool (seen in Image 2), to complete a lab exercise to notice change in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil in Ariquemas over a forty-year period. Finally, to end the first session, students will use their new knowledge about satellite imagery to put a series of images in order on a timeline.

Image 2: This is an image of the Landsat App: https://livingatlas2.arcgis.com/landsatviewer/

In the second session, students read an article about Amazon deforestation. Reading the article brings further meaning to the lab and image analysis that the students did in session one. Next, students have an opportunity to explore careers related to forestry and environmental planning. To wrap up the lesson, students take a quiz about Amazon deforestation related to the previous activities. This powerful lesson illustrates the importance of having access to the US Landsat satellite imagery program, a free, expansive (over 50 years), historical and ongoing record that helps scientists and government officials monitor deforestation and help guide policymaking to preserve natural resources.

To download the lesson: https://ckan.americaview.org/data/AmericaView/EOD/2024_eod_deforestation.pdf

To view the 2024 EOD poster and other lesson plans: https://ckan.americaview.org/dataset/2024-earth-observation-day-poster

View related posts:
Part 2: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-part-2-exploring-the-electromagnetic-spectrum/
Part 1: https://www.iowaview.org/dear-teachers-2025-a-review-of-av-teaching-resources/

Dear Teachers – Part 2: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum

By Dear Teachers, Earth Observation Day, Education, Imagery, Lesson Plan, Observation, Remote Sensing, , , , , , , , , ,


Ready, set, go! As promised in our previous post we are going to do an overview of the recently published AmericaView lesson plans. The first lesson from the 2024 Earth Observation Day lesson series is, “Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS).”  This lesson is intended to be an introductory lesson to help give students a basic understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum, energy waves, and remote sensing. Students will gain background knowledge and learn vocabulary from this lesson to help them as they move through other lessons that are focused on specific disciplines. The lesson is broken into two sessions. 

The first session has 4 activities. First, an introductory video explaining electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, and visible light. Second, a reading activity called “Anatomy of an Electromagnetic Wave” to reinforce concepts from the video.  Third student examine two diagrams, one displaying energy waves across the EMS and a second diagram showing a timeline and introduction to the US Landsat Mission which has been tasked with collecting earth data across the EMS since 1972. The final activity is a physical activity using a jump rope to further demonstrate concepts of energy waves (frequency, wavelength, energy).  

The second session’s activities include a warm-up that is examining a satellite image to identify various features. Next there are two readings, “Wave behaviors,” which explores different vocabulary related to EMS waves, and “Visualization: from Energy to Image,” which explains how invisible EMS waves are converted into different forms of imagery. Next, students get to apply knowledge in “Exploring Remote Sensing Activity.” They will get to explore how different surfaces emit different light energy. Students will also get a chance to explore remote sensing using Google Earth. Finally, to wrap up this lesson, students will wrap up this session with a quiz style game or a printable quiz.

Here is the link to view the full lesson plan as a pdf: https://ckan.americaview.org/data/AmericaView/EOD/2024_eod_ems.pdf

Happy Earth Observation Day 2024!

By Activity, AmericaView, Announcement, Earth Observation Day, Education, Lesson Plan, Observation, Outreach, Remote Sensing, , , ,

Earth Observation Day 2024 is finally here as it the release of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day Poster! The poster is following the theme of this year’s Earth Science Week theme, “Earth Science Everywhere”. The front of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day poster features 6 image themes: agriculture, disaster, forestry, urban land use, water, and wildlife. The back of the poster explains the significance of the images and provides links to 6 themed lesson plans. IowaView was responsible for the disaster management lesson plan. 🙂

https://ckan.americaview.org/dataset/2024-earth-observation-day-poster