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. Students go on to identify features in other satellite images using both images off the Web site and other textual resources. A unit follows on biodiversity covering topics such as food chains, food webs and the Nature Mapping program. The site is supported with a teacher's guide that includes lesson plans, classroom activities, and reproducibles. The units can also be utilized outside the program as supplemental activities within a required curriculum.
All materials are available free on the Web.
Forces of Change - Forces of Change is a comprehensive program being developed by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, through funding from NASA and other donors, to explain the geological, environmental, and historical processes that have shaped our world. It will consist of a permanent exhibit in the Museum, a traveling exhibit, publications, interactive computer programs, and public programming which will include a lecture series and electronic classroom courses. The cornerstone of the Forces of Change program is a permanent exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History scheduled to open early in 2001. The 5,400 sq. The goal of the exhibit will be to inform visitors about the history and present condition of our environment as the world prepares to enter the 21st century.