Teaching with satellite direct readout

Increasingly, educators in schools in the United States and in other countries are using the direct readout of satellite data to stimulate science, mathematics, and technology learning by their students. Direct readout of Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) and Weather-Facsimile (WEFAX) images involves only a modest investment in school-fabricated and/or off-the-shelf equipment, but allows students to plug directly into one of the world´s most powerful global environmental monitoring systems: the constellation of U.S., Russian, European, and Japanese satellites that transmit low-resolution (4-8 km) visible and thermal images of the Earth. Under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) promotes the use of direct readout technology for K-12 education. Its Space Technology Education Program (STEP) helped in establishing two-week summer workshops for teachers at universities around the country. STEP provides a clearinghouse of direct readout information and software for educators. In working with Alma College, ERIM is extending its direct readout support to the college campus. Undergraduate classes in physics, ecology, and other subjects will be supported by a new a new PC-based, high resolution (HRPT) Earth station at Alma. This station will be used in other courses as well and for undergraduate research