Programs

Activity 2 – Planetary Stewardship

In this extension activity, students can choose their own targets of interest to identify signs of change on our planet (i.e. mountains, forests, glaciers, cities, etc.) and research why they believe it is of interest for future space photography and create a justification and an action plan for conservation in that area of the world. 

Ask your students, “If we wanted to discover what a specific place on Earth would be like 20 years in the future, how could we do it?”
Answers can include:

Ask your students,

What areas of the world are you concerned about?

Answers may include protecting coral reefs, stopping pollution of rivers and lakes, rising sea levels due to melting at the polar caps, loss of polar bear habitat, cities encroaching on animal habitats, dangerous radiation from the Ozone Hole, rising temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions changing weather, increased ship traffic and fishing depleting ocean life, increased air pollution from factories harming plants, forests, animals and people, oil spills, wildfires destroying homes and habitats, etc.
Ask your students,

Which of these areas of concern can be imaged from space and monitored over time?

Answers can include the recession of glaciers and ice caps, deforestation (logging and clear cutting for farming), urban growth of cities, natural disasters such as major hurricane and earthquake damage, floods, fires (both human-caused and wildfires), regrowth of protected lands (i.e. natural parklands and preserves), volcanic eruption and new land and island creation, creation of new lakes through dam projects, etc.

Note: Satellite imagery and analysis can also help scientists monitor things like the health of oceans, air quality, temperature of the land and seas.

Tell your students that today they are going to work as a scientist who is researching an area of the world that they are interested in.

The location they choose should be one that they believe should be monitored to identify signs of future change (i.e. mountains, forests, glaciers, cities, rivers, lakes, etc.).   Students can use the Internet or atlases, globes and encyclopedias to research one of the topics they have mentioned above to help them locate a suitable site (this could be a homework assignment).

Students will locate an image of the area online and use the student worksheet to describe their target location and why they believe it is of interest for future space photography by NASA.  They will also need to consider what actions could be taken by people to conserve and protect this particular location’s resources for future generations. Students should save their work on the computer and share their findings with the rest of the class.

Students will then create a video of their action plan using a webcam or digital camera and save it as a .wmv or .mov file and post it, along with their photo and journal text to the Earth Science Challenge Forum for sharing with other students.

Students should go to www.challengerkids.org and use their user name and password for their account, or their team’s account (that you have made for or with them – see Lesson Preparation and Instructions).

At the forum students should post their images, journal text and video for sharing. If time, they can comment on other student’s posted journals. Note: It will take a few days for their journals to be posted and comments to be approved as Challenger Center educators monitor all postings.

Online Resources

• Lesson Overview

  • Lesson Summary

  • Objectives and Essential Questions

  • How do images from space taken over time show us change on the Earth?

• Teaching the Lesson

  • Lesson Preparation

  • Lesson Introduction

  • Activity 1 – Conserving our Planet’s Resources

  • Activity 2 –  Planetary Stewardship