Satellite Images show how Humans Impact their Environment: Earth Observation Day Event at Slade Elementary School

Sixth graders at Slade Elementary School (SES) saw how remotely sensed images collected by satellites orbiting the earth can be used for monitoring how humans are impacting their environment.  Students in Mr. Jared Long's and Mr. Andy Pannell's classes were learning about how humans are modifying their environment through their activities.

Mr. Pannell (left) and Mr. Long (right), 6th grade teachers
at Slade Elementary School, Laramie Wyoming.

Using satellite images acquired at different times, WyomingView coordinator Ramesh Sivanpillai highlighted human-made changes in different parts of the world.

For example, Landsat images showed how agriculture activities have expanded in Namibia, deforestation in Brazil and Rwanda, urban growth in Pearl River Delta (China), and Dubai, and shrimp farming in Ecuador.

Sivanpillai described the long history of remote sensing and the different platforms (pigeons, balloons, airplanes and satellites) that were used for collecting images in the visible and invisible (infrared) parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Student responses were "Learned a lot about earth (Zach)", "Different views of leaves! Really cool (Brianna)", "Change over time on earth very interesting (Liz)", "Wildfire pictures (Tamer)", and "very interesting, informative (Phoenix)", when asked "what stuck out" most from this presentation.  Mr. Long commented that "students and I really enjoyed" the presentation.

This outreach activity was conducted on February 22, 2011 as part of AmericaView’s Earth Observation Day activities aimed at introducing teachers and students to remote sensing science and applications.