You can broaden your view by traveling around and viewing the watershed from different vantage points. But you are still on the ground. Now your scope is dramatically enlarged and the spatial relationships in the watershed are clearly revealed. Models are excellent for showing landscape contours in 3-D, and you can spray water on them to simulate stormwater runoff paths. However, models dont show much detail.
Photographs offer a different aerial perspective.
Most aerial photos are taken at altitudes low enough to show individual landscape features like shopping malls, highways, airport runways, sewage treatment plants, dairy farms, parks, residential areas, and factories. At Cornell Universitys Explorations from an Aerial Perspective program, we teach educators how to use aerial photos and topographic maps to investigate land use and water quality in their watershed. Over the past six years, we have trained some 400 educators, including teachers from 4th grade through community college and educators from nonformal settings like museums, nature centers, or Cooperative Extension. They in turn have worked with approximately 35,000 youth and adults. Aerial photos in the classroom We have found that aerial photos generate a lot of excitement in classrooms as students recognize features they knowtheir school, their houses, local parks, train stations, graveyards, creeks, landfills.