EET Workshops Implementation
Use this template to share the results of how you have incorporated the techniques of an EET chapter into your teaching. Let us know how you used the EET in the classroom by describing the projects and activities that you carried out with your students. In addition to this template, post a PowerPoint presentation or a text file with screen shots to document your results.
Name:
Jennifer Mott
Position and school:
8th grade science teacher, Myrtle Grove Middle School
Title of the EET Chapter on which you based your Project or Activity:
Shrinking forests: Growing problem
Dataset Used: SAR images for 1994-1996
Tool Used:
IMAGE J
Project/Activity Question(s):
· How much forest has been cut down in the years between 1994-1996
· How can we find out how much deforestation is occurring
· What kind of information do different kinds of satellites give us?
Project/Activity Goal(s):
· Calculate how much forest was cut down between 1994-1996
Brief Description of the Project/Activity (What did students do?):
I gave students the case study. We read through the case study and talked about what is deforestation and why is it a problem. We then focused on brazil and the amazon, and why this is such a big problem. Finally I gave the students the datasets from SAR to use to calculate how much forest was cut down between 1994-1996. I wanted the students to take another step and calculate how much total forest has been deforested.
Number of Students (With how many students did you carry out the project/activity?):
35
Time Spent on the Project/Activity (How many hours or class periods did the project/activity take?):
1 period
Your Reflections on the Project/Activity:
· How do you feel the project/activity went with students?
· What sorts of questions did student ask? What insights did they have? How proficient are students in using the dataset and/or tool of the EET chapter?
· How will you carry out this project/activity differently in the future?
I felt that this activity did not go as well as the others I have used. First, the IMAGE J did not work correctly. When we asked the computer to apply the FFT band pass filter, it did not work and it said it was out of memory. We pushed ahead anyway, hoping that this would not be a big problem. When we tried to threshold, it should the right thing when we applied it, but we did not get the correct image when we closed it. (the image did not invert). This meant that students were not able to get correct readings on how much area had been deforested. Not sure how to fix this problem???
The students were easily able to interpret the image give that I used the case study and had introduced the idea to them. This was the first time that I used the case study, and I quickly decided that this will be a good place to start with all of the EET chapters in the future. I think the students are getting much more proficient with using IMAGE J, although we still have a ways to go to really understand what they are doing.
I am hoping that someone can tell me how to fix what went wring on our computers, so that we can go back to this lesson and find a final answer. I would also like to find out more about what the terms mean. I am not sure that I can explain what thresholding is or what a bandpass filter does. It would be helpful to understand these so I can translate this to the students.
In addition to this template, please post a PowerPoint presentation or a text document with screen shots to document your results. Include examples of representative student work (without names) and any handouts or introductory materials you may have provided to accompany the project/activity.
If the materials you used come from other sources and are copy written, please cite where they come from. If you developed the materials you used, then please cite them with Your Name, Copyright Year. For example, Susan Smith, Copyright 2006.