Bringing satellite imagery into the classroom
Google Maps and Google Earth have triggered an explosion of interest in our planet’s atmosphere, ocean and land but until now working with remote sensing images has made only a small impact in the classroom.
Now, new tutorials have been launched through the national Jisc-funded data centre Mimas to encourage more use of this technology to inspire learners in the primary, secondary and further education classrooms.
The tutorials will help students apply their digital skills to a range of educational scenarios, from drawing conclusions about the Haiti earthquake crisis to understanding map coordinates.
Gail Millin-Chalabi, GeoKnowledge Project Manager at Mimas said: “The tutorials in Spatial Science for Schools provide an integrated approach for embedding images of the Earth for topics such as tsunamis, earthquakes, species extinction, floods, atmospheric circulation and contrast enhancement of images. Part of the Landmap vision is to educate the new generation regarding the use of remote sensing so that they are better informed of the application opportunities available to them.”
The tutorials are aimed at 9 – 18 year old pupils to encourage the use of remote sensing by teachers in geography, biology, mathematics, geomatics and physics lessons.
Kamie Kitmitto Landmap Manager said: “Landmap is hosting this website to contribute to the UK government agenda to promote science and technology in schools. The tutorials offer a range of possibilities for teachers to encourage pupils’ interest in natural sciences, mathematics or engineering through the user of fascinating satellite images.”
The tutorials were authored as part of the Fernerkundung in Schulen (FIS) Project, University of Bonn, and are funded by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany.