426
June 2015
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
I
ntroduction
Landsat images contain valuable information about
Earth surface features that can be incorporated in
middle school curricula (Bednarz and Butler, 1999) and
engage students in critical thinking activities. Images ac-
quired before and after events such as flooding, hurricanes,
or wildfires are useful for explaining landscape changes. Us-
ing Landsat images acquired in different years or decades,
teachers can illustrate phenomena such as deforestation and
urban growth (Delahunty et al., 2012). Numerous resources
such as hard copy maps, CD-ROMs and online archives and
applications, are available to
teachers interested in incor-
porating Landsat and other
remotely sensed images into
their classrooms (Fougere,
1998; Kirman and Jackson,
2007).
This highlight article de-
scribes the utility of Land-
sat image-pairs developed
by the US Geological Survey
(USGS) and National Aero-
nautical & Space Administra-
tion (NASA) in sixth grade environmental and social sciences
classes. These resources have been developed to promote
awareness and use of Landsat and other remotely sensed
data and are available from:
Image of the Week
(USGS – IW;
eros.usgs.gov/imagegallery/image-week-2),
Earth Obser-
vatory
(NASA EO - earthobservatory.nasa.gov/) and
Images
of Change
(NASA IC - climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux). These
UW Lab School, January 31, 2012.
archives also contain single-date im-
agery that describe Earth surface fea-
tures or phenomena. NASA IC shares
resources from multiple sources such
as the United Nations Environmen-
tal Program, USGS Landsat Missions
Gallery, and others. Users can query
these archives by themes (land, water),
or events (wildfires, flooding) or geo-
graphic regions. Alternatively, users
can browse these archives chronolog-
ically. Images and accompanying de-
scriptions can be instantly downloaded
and teachers can integrate these into
their teaching materials.
WyomingView (
) has been work-
ing with teachers in Laramie, Wyoming middle schools to
identify opportunities to incorporate Landsat images into
lessons for sixth through eighth grade classes (ages 11-13).
WyomingView is one of several state-level programs, Stat-
eviews, that is part of the AmericaView
.
org) program, which is funded by the USGS to promote
remote sensing science and applications (Landenberger et
al., 2011). WyomingView has been conducting educational
outreach activities, providing no-cost remotely sensed im-
agery (Sivanpillai and Driese, 2007),
offering internships to students, and
training current and future work-
force across Wyoming (Sivanpillai
2011). K-12 outreach is aimed at pro-
moting the use of Landsat and other
remotely sensed data and their ap-
plications in grade schools.
Since 2011, WyomingView has in-
troduced Landsat image-pairs gen-
erated by USGS and NASA in addi-
tion to images from its own archive
to more than 600 students in sixth
through eighth grades as part of the
AmericaView Earth Observation Day activities. This highlight
article describes the approaches used to identify opportuni-
ties and lessons learned from introducing Landsat images in
the sixth grade environmental and social sciences classes at
Laramie Junior High (LJH) and UW Lab (UWL) schools.
Numerous resources such
as hard copy maps, CD-
ROMs and online archives
and applications, are available
to teachers interested in
incorporating Landsat and
other remotely sensed images
into their classrooms.
