Remote sensing: a catalyst for interesting students and teachers in NASA technology

It is important that today's teachers learn to integrate technology effectively into the curriculum and that they understand new styles of teaching and learning enabled by technology. Every teacher needs to be ready to use and teach with technology and NASA technology provides an excellent teaching tool for 21st Century schools. While the majority of States have technology requirements in their curriculum, only a handful of states requires actual evidence of proficiency in the use of technology in teaching. In Texas, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) requires teachers to have a certain level of proficiency in this area. With the aid of a grant from NASA, the authors in the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) Program at the University of Texas at El Paso are endeavoring to provide teachers with field and classroom experiences focused on teaching with technology (satellite remote sensing, Internet, scientific probes and instruments). They are in the beginning of a two year pilot program that is focused on training teachers and through them their students in state-of-the-art remote sensing methods. Although the selected teachers for this pilot program (10 to be trained each school year) have been introduced to remote sensing during their GLOBE training, none felt comfortable enough to implement it in their classroom. Hence the need for further training. The potential benefit to the participating teachers is access to NASA's advanced geologic remote sensing methodologies and facilities at UTEP's Pan American Center for Environmental Sciences (PACES), and JPL. The innovative aspect of this program is that it provides a logical, direct and economical mechanism for transfer of NASA's remote sensing technology to a wide variety of students, many of whom are minorities secondary school students will be impacted by this number of Earth Science students with experience in the use of NASA remote sensing technology. Preliminary results of this project includes the use of satellite imagery to enhance senior projects, help teachers validate training. This project will increase substantially the number of Earth Science students with experience in the use of NASA remote sensing technology. Preliminary results of this project includes the use of satellite imagery to enhance senior projects, help teacher validate GLOBE land cover and submit findings via the Internet and raise awareness of NASA resources available to teachers and therefore impact the level of knowledge of students.