Remote sensing research in undergraduate education: An international fieldwork perspective

Institutions of higher education in the U.S. are increasing their use of project-based courses and experiential learning using projects or service in other countries. Project-based instruction provides students with an opportunity to make connections between the classroom and the world around them. Research suggests that fieldwork strongly enhances curriculum instruction and provides additional learning value to students. The goal of this grant was to increase the international content of existing curriculum by providing to students advanced skills in sampling design, geospatial statistics, and remote sensing for mapping and monitoring of crops and natural areas including semi-arid mountains, sub-tropical mountains, and tropical rain forests. This experience for the students has opened their eyes to new cultures and environments, allowed them to apply their classrooms skills is a real-world context and importantly to see how what they are learning is readily usable outside the classroom.