Karen Chu, an undergraduate education major from the University of Maryland, helped Merry with the project. The teacher's kit breaks the study of Landsat images into several individual lessons. First, students learn about Landsat itself and construct a paper model of the satellite. Then they see images taken at other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Forests, Merry explained, appear dark in visible blue wavelengths of light, but bright in the near infrared.
Pavement reflects brightly across all wavelengths.
Merry routinely combines satellite images taken at different wavelengths for her research of water quality. Water containing many small particles appears bright in blue light, she explained, but dark in infrared. Lastly, the teacher's kit helps students tackle the more complex problem of how Landsat orbits the earth. The students calculate the satellite's orbital path, for instance, and its height above the earth. The teacher's kit takes advantage of the fact that copies of Landsat images now cost a fraction of what they did a few years ago.