Teaching Notes

Example Output

Example Output
World map and ICE Transect Plot. Click image for a larger view.

Grade Level

This chapter is appropriate for students in grades 7-12.

Learning Goals

• use NEO to display Earth system satellite data;
• use NEO to explore geographic and time-series patterns in a single data set;
• use NEO to explore, graph, and analyze spatial and temporal variation and covariation in satellite images;
• describe the relationships between atmospheric carbon monoxide and aerosol concentrations; and
• investigate the possible sources of CO and aerosols.

Rationale

This chapter serves a dual purpose. It is designed primarily as a activity that emphasizes the dynamic nature of Earth's atmosphere using the power and utility of remote sensing. The secondary, but equally important purpose, is to serve as a professional development activity for science teachers.

This chapter provides a computer-based activity to supplement and reinforce classroom and laboratory study of Earth's atmosphere. Given a basic background in the physical and chemical composition and structure of the atmosphere, students will explore how concentrations of carbon monoxide and aerosols change from month to month in different locations around the world. They will learn to identify and analyze atmospheric patterns of variation and covariation (correlated variation) in space and time. Students will use covariation between the two compounds as a clue to identify their sources. In addition, students will begin to understand that even trace gases like carbon monoxide, and aerosol particles such as dust and smoke, can have a significant direct and indirect effect on how the Earth system functions.

By exploring and analyzing these patterns in NEO, students (and teachers) will gain the ability and confidence to initiate their own inquiry into the realm of NASA remotely sensed Earth system data. After completing the activity, students will be able to use NEO in a wide range of Earth system, geographic, ecological, and even social-science studies of our ever changing planet.

Background Information

Teachers will want to feel comfortable identifying patterns in a single satellite image, and in multiple images, and will need to know basic continental and regional physical geography, and a little about the social/cultural situation in their areas of interest. The Case Study discusses reasons to globally monitor aerosols and carbon monoxide at Earth's surface. Students may develop their own reasons when they build their own animation. It will be up to them to then discover something about these areas as they relate to the spatial and temporal patterns of carbon monoxide and aerosols.

Fires in South America—information from NASA Earth Observatory
Dust and Smoke Events—information from NASA Earth Observatory

NASA's TERRA Satellite
MODIS Web at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
MODIS Aerosol data at Goddard Spece Flight Center

NASA JTrack 3-D Satellite Orbit Utility
USGS EarthNow! Landsat Image Viewer

Instructional Strategies

NEO is introduced using a logical, step-by-step approach that develops a basic understanding of the NEO interface and Image Composite Explorer (ICE) tool via exploring remotely sensed images of Earth's atmosphere. Students begin with an introduction to the NEO interface. This is followed by exploring patterns within a single dataset image, Aerosol Optical Thickness at a specific date range. They will learn to measure the area of high concentration - the atmospheric plume, the level of concentration, and the geographic pattern of the plume. This exploration will develop and enforce the concept of spatial variation within a single dataset. Once they begin to see how patterns vary within a single image, they are then shown how to explore variation between images acquired at slightly different times, one month apart. As they undertake these explorations of spatial and temporal variability, they will be learning how to use NEO and the NEO ICE tool.

Once they are comfortable exploring variation in space and time within a single dataset, students will be introduced, in Part 3, to a second closely related dataset, carbon monoxide (CO). The two datasets share certain properties—they are both satellite-acquired, atmospheric datasets. Both datasets offer global coverage at overlapping time frames, monthly averages. Yet they offer an interesting and highly valuable lesson in Earth system science: in some cases both carbon dioxide and aerosols have the same source, while in others cases they do not. Thus, students can exploit the properties of covariation in concentration between these two datasets, in conjunction with regional geographic information, to determine their respective sources. This strategy will result in two outcomes: 1) students learn how to use a valuable Earth science tool, NEO; and 2.) they learn an important characteristic of the Earth system itself - how to use system dynamics - variation in space and time - to better understand how Earth's atmosphere is changing, and why it is changing. The activity ends with a brief discussion about the possible impacts, or results, of these changes.

Time Required

Case Study: 30 minutes
Part 1: 45 minutes
Part 2: 45 minutes
Part 3: 45 minutes
Part 4: 45 minutes
Part 5: 45 minutes

Science Standards

Grades 9-12

Science as inquiry

• 12ASI1.2 Design and conduct scientific investigations.
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  Designing and conducting a scientific investigation requires introduction to the major concepts in the area being investigated, proper equipment, safety precautions, assistance with methodological problems, recommendations for use of technologies, clarification of ideas that guide the inquiry, and scientific knowledge obtained from sources other than the actual investigation. The investigation may also require student clarification of the question, method, controls, and variables; student organization and display of data; student revision of methods and explanations; and a public presentation of the results with a critical response from peers. Regardless of the scientific investigation performed, students must use evidence, apply logic, and construct an argument for their proposed explanations.
• 12ASI1.3 Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications.
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  A variety of technologies, such as hand tools, measuring instruments, and calculators, should be an integral component of scientific investigations. The use of computers for the collection, analysis, and display of data is also a part of this standard. Mathematics plays an essential role in all aspects of an inquiry. For example, measurement is used for posing questions, formulas are used for developing explanations, and charts and graphs are used for communicating results.
• 12ASI1.4 Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence.
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  Student inquiries should culminate in formulating an explanation or model. Models should be physical, conceptual, and mathematical. In the process of answering the questions, the students should engage in discussions and arguments that result in the revision of their explanations. These discussions should be based on scientific knowledge, the use of logic, and evidence from their investigation.

Physical Science

• 12BPS1.1 Matter is made of minute particles called atoms, and atoms are composed of even smaller components.
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  These components have measurable properties, such as mass and electrical charge. Each atom has a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The electric force between the nucleus and electrons holds the atoms together.
• 12BPS5.4 Everything tends to become less organized and less orderly over time.
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  Thus, in all energy transfers, the overall effect is that the energy is spread out uniformly. Examples are the transfer of energy from hotter to cooler objects by conduction, radiation, or convection and the warming of our surroundings when we burn fuels.

Earth and Space Science

• 12DESS2.2 Movement of matter between reservoirs is driven by the earth's internal and external sources of energy.
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  These movements are often accompanied by a change in the physical and chemical properties of the matter. Carbon, for example, occurs in carbonate rocks such as limestone, in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide gas, in water as dissolved carbon dioxide, and in all organisms as complex molecules that control the chemistry of life.

Science and Technology

• 12EST2.1 Scientists in different disciplines ask different questions, use different methods of investigation, and accept different types of evidence to support their explanations.
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  Many scientific investigations require the contributions of individuals from different disciplines, including engineering. New disciplines of science, such as geophysics and biochemistry often emerge at the interface of two older disciplines.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives - Environmental Quality

• 12FSPSP4.3 Many factors influence environmental quality.
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  Factors that students might investigate include population growth, resource use, population distribution, overconsumption, the capacity of technology to solve problems, poverty, the role of economic, political, and religious views, and different ways human s view the earth.
• 12FSPSP6.1 Science and technology are essential social enterprises, but alone they can only indicate what can happen, not what should happen. The latter involves human decisions about the use of knowledge.
• 12GHNS1.1 Individuals and teams have contributed and will continue to contribute to the scientific enterprise.
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  Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. Pursuing science as a career or as a hobby can be both fascinating and intellectually rewarding.

History and Nature of Science

• 12GHNS3.4 The historical perspective of scientific explanations demonstrates how scientific knowledge changes by evolving over time, almost always building on earlier knowledge.