This pop-up book was designed for K-4 students to introduce them to remote sensing. By following Echo's journey through Arizona they become more familiar with map use and remote sensing images. After completing this book, children ages 5-6 should be able to distinguish between what a satellite sees and what Echo sees, be able to identify patterns and color in the satellite image and compare these to what Echo sees, and begin to extend the concept that texture is not only how something feels but is also how something looks. Older children (ages 7-9) should begin to describe what the satellite is seeing by just looking at the satellite view and they should also be able to describe the location of patterns and colors (i.e., square patterns of irrigated crops are near rivers and green forests are on top of mountains) and make more elaborate observations about texture in the satellite images. A set of activities reinforce the four basic themes or concepts fundamental to interpreting satellite imagery: perspective, shape and pattern, color, and texture.

In this lab, students will infer a potential for increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to global warming by contrasting the temperature rise in a CO2 rich atmosphere to that of normal air when both environments are exposed to a bright light in a controlled experiment.

Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and convection.

Students find and calculate the angle that light is transmitted through a holographic diffraction grating using trigonometry. After finding this angle, student teams design and build their own spectrographs, researching and designing a ground- or space-based mission using their creation. At project end, teams present their findings to the class, as if they were making an engineering conference presentation. Student must have completed the associated Building a Fancy Spectrograph activity before attempting this activity. This activity is best completed over four 60-minutes sessions.

From radio waves to gamma rays, this video segment from NASA introduces the seven categories of the electromagnetic spectrum and how each type of radiation is part of our everyday lives.

In this introduction to light energy, students learn about reflection and refraction as they learn that light travels in wave form. Through hands-on activities, they see how prisms, magnifying glasses and polarized lenses work. They also gain an understanding of the colors of the rainbow as the visible spectrum, each color corresponding to a different wavelength.

The Landsat Thematic Mapper is a multispectral imaging sensor added to Landsats 4 and later. This site uses text, photographs, tables, and diagrams to explain how the Thematic Mapper works and the advantages of sensing radiation in wavelengths other than those normally visible to the human eye. It is part of NASA's Remote Sensing Tutorial and links to the rest of the tutorial are provided.

Gamma ray bursts are fast, intense bursts of gamma rays, the most energetic events in the universe. They travel clear across the universe from distant galaxies to our detectors in low Earth orbit. But how do we know how far away these objects are? By what methods do we measure how powerful they are? This collection of activities will allow you to journey with your students to these distant explosions, by following exactly the same procedures used by today's astronomers. Your students will review some basic physics concepts about light, learn about redshifted spectra and Hubble's Law, and use them to find out how far away, and how powerful, gamma ray bursts truly are. Your students will "be the astronomer!"

The Adventure of Echo the Bat is an interactive Web site allowing students to follow Echo as he migrates through Arizona. The adventure offers a directed and investigative approach to how land features look from space, what the colors mean in a Landsat image, and an introduction to identifying habitats in a false color Landsat image. The site is supported with a teacher's guide that includes the following units: Understanding Light, Remote Sensing, and Biodiversity.

This activity will help students understand how white light is broken up into its component colors by a diffraction grating and what the relationships are between the wavelength, frequency, and energy of light. Objectives, applicable standards, and prerequisite materials are described, and instructions and a materials list are provided.

This interactive resource from NASA illustrates how infrared technology has advanced space exploration and can offer insight into questions about star formation, planetary systems, brown dwarfs, and the origins of the universe.

This site provides a number of Landsat 7 scene subsets as LAN files that are intended for use with Purdue University's MultiSpec software. Users also have the option of downloading the Landsat images as TIFF files in four different band combinations. Links are included to download Multi-Spec, a MultiSpec tutorial, and an introduction to remote-sensing PowerPoint presentation with detailed notes.

Students learn and use the properties of light to solve the following challenge: "A mummified troll was discovered this summer at our school and it has generated lots of interest worldwide. The principal asked us, the technology classes, to design a security system that alerts the police if someone tries to pilfer our prized possession. How can we construct a system that allows visitors to view our artifact during the day, but invisibly protects it at night in a cost-effective way?"

Students learn the basic properties of light the concepts of light absorption, transmission, reflection and refraction, as well as the behavior of light during interference. Lecture information briefly addresses the electromagnetic spectrum and then provides more in-depth information on visible light. With this knowledge, students better understand lasers and are better prepared to design a security system for the mummified troll.

Through an introduction to the design of lighting systems and the electromagnetic spectrum, students learn about the concept of daylighting as well as two types of light bulbs (lamps) often used in energy-efficient lighting design.

This site features interactive games (for Grades K-4) on the solar system, rockets, addition, guess what number I'm thinking of, and NASA spinoffs (everyday items developed from NASA research). A teachers' area links to guides for teaching about clouds, precipitation, energy, winds, weather, planetary geology, flight, the Wright brothers, rockets, the electromagnetic spectrum, and careers.

In this lesson, students learn that light travels in a straight line from a light source and that ray diagrams help us understand how an image will be created by a lens. In the accompanying activity, students explore the concepts behind the workings of a pinhole camera.

The concepts involved with Radio JOVE involve the interaction of moving charges with magnetic fields. The appropriate position within the course outline and the level that the material should be presented at are best determined by the teacher. What is provided here are some general descriptions of the topics and some
suggestions about their integration into the science curriculum at the ninth grade (Physical Science and Earth Science) and twelfth grade (Physics) levels.

This Website shows our world in the infrared light and teaches about the benefits of infrared technology. It includes images and applications in science, medicine, fire fighting, history, art, navigation, and law enforcement.