Watching a Glacier (11-14)

This brief activity uses false-colour images of the Columbia glacier to introduce the idea of using sequences of satellite images to monitor change and focuses on the selection of appropriate data for an investigation.

Watching a Glacier (7-11)

This activity uses satellite images of the Earth to show how a glacier has changed over almost three decades. Children are asked to measure the glacier to find out how much it has changed in size and to compare false-colour images to suggest how this helps us find out more about environmental change. Guidance on...

Where Would You Photograph? (11-14)

In this activity students take on the role of Earth observation scientists submitting a request for an image they would like for their research. This gives them the opportunity to consider the possibilities of pictures taken from orbit (and the limitations) and to write scientifically for a specific audience. It...

Astronaut or Satellite?

This activity introduces the idea of remote sensing and some of the difficulties of obtaining images from orbit by asking students to match photographs taken from the ground with early astronaut photographs.

Viva Las Vegas

This activity shows how Earth observation can be used to study human geography by comparing the satellite images of Las Vegas over the last few decades. Linking to measurement of irregular areas and addition and multiplication of fractions, it asks children to measure the area of Las Vegas at three separate times...

Seeing Temperatures

This activity allows students to investigate how images are produced from data streams by using first a spreadsheet and then an image-processing program. They then go on to see how the usefulness of such a monochromatic image may be enhanced by using lookup tables and calibration. The materials used focus on the...

Visual perception

Astronauts, and especially spacecraft commanders, must take in a huge amounts of information from displays and screens. Small changes in this information might indicate important changes that should be addressed, and missing the signs may have important consequences.

This simple activity challenges students...

Where Would You Photograph? (14-16)

In this activity students take on the role of Earth observation scientists submitting a request for an image they would like for their research. This gives them the opportunity to consider the possibilities of pictures taken from orbit (and the limitations) and to write scientifically for a specific audience. It...

Solids, liquids, gases

The relationship between energy and states of matter is sometimes difficult for students to comprehend. This activity helps to reinforce the notion that, when energy is added to a system, the molecules themselves do not change but their motion and relative positions do change.

While the model is a...

Plant growth

The growth of plants in space is a keen area of experimentation, including ongoing work aboard the International Space Station. Successful crops will help astronauts to spend longer in space, boosting their healthy diet while reducing the mass of prepared food that must be transported from Earth.

Using a...