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: Ardis Herrold
Position and school: Grosse Pointe North High School
I teach 9th grade Earth Science.
Title of the EET Chapter on which you based your Project or Activity:
Measuring Change in Satellite Images
Dataset Used: We used three images of the Aral Sea plus the Landsat Triptych Image. Aral Sea images used: A2008279_715_500m, A2003247_915_500m, A2001252_0715_500m, landsat_aral_tripptych.
Tool Used: Image J.
Project/Activity Question(s):
1. How much did the Aral Sea change between images 1 and 2? (I went for an actual measurement change of diameter, not a percentage.)
2. How long would it be before the Aral Sea would go completely dry?
*3. Make a prediction of the diameter of the Aral Sea on 10/5/2008. Compare your prediction with the actual measurement.
(* We never actually got to this part.)
Project/Activity Goal(s):
To see how water use and diversion can impact an area (making the analogy to
what would happen if western states could divert water from Lake Michigan?)
Brief Description of the Project/Activity (What did students do?):
Students carried out the standard procedure outlined in the activity for the first part of the activity. They set scales and measured the two diameters of the Sea in images 1 and 2.
Using simple math, we made a prediction of how many months it would take before the Aral Sea would dry up. (So far so good.)
We then attempted to do the area calculations using the triptych images. (This was a disaster. Many students could not figure out the thresholding.)
At this point we ran out of time.
Number of Students (With how many students did you carry out the project/activity?): 29
Time Spent on the Project/Activity (How many hours or class periods did the project/activity take?): One class period. (49 minutes)
Your Reflections on the Project/Activity:
How do you feel the project/activity went with students?
I used a photocopy of the directions we were given, and this was not a good plan. They found it very difficult to read and follow. This is no fault of the instructions, but my students are not excellent at reading.
What sorts of questions did students ask? What insights did they have? How proficient are students in using the dataset and/or tool of the EET chapter?
I think the students understood the plan of what we were trying to accomplish but got bogged down in the details. I had pre-downloaded all of their images but this was the first time they had used Image J. By the end of the class, they were spread out everywhere in the process, form restarting the measurements to being done with measuring areas on the triptych images. We never did get to the part where they could look at how much the area changed vs. the diameter. I had hoped to make the case that the area tool would be a much better predictor of when the Sea would run dry.
How will you carry out this project/activity differently in the future?
I would not use the triptych image and analysis with my regular students. Having said this, I think honors level students would easily master and understand that last part.
I wanted to do this using images of Lake St. Clair which is a few blocks from our school. But I could find only 1 Landsat image of it. I really think I did not know how to effectively search the Landsat archives and I would suggest this would be a valuable part of future instruction on this activity, so teachers could customize their activities. I spent a considerable amount of time looking anywhere for images of Lake St. Clair, but did not find any more that were suitable for comparison.
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.