Module 5 - Exploration and Discovery

B) To Boldly Go...

Objectives

Students will pick a site from the SIR-CED CD-ROM and explore on their own or in teams.
Students will learn about the processes involved in scientific research.

This should be the fun part of the SIR-CED package. Having mastered the necessary skills (using Sigma0, understanding what a radar image is, thinking about the environment, etc.) your students should be ready for some exploration on their own or in research teams.

The data collected together on the SIR-CED CD-ROM are unique in their scope. Never before have data from such diverse sources been packaged together like this. Most scientists using radar data have not been able to obtain all the information contained in the SIR-CED CD-ROM about their site, without performing a laborious search through numerous archives. Your students have an opportunity to look at a data set, analyze it, develop hypotheses, draw conclusions about it and report them to their colleagues. In other words, they can do scientific research on this data.

Tools your students might need to help in carrying out research are a good Atlas, paper (or software) to plot graphs, paper (or software) to draw up tables, a camera to take pictures, a good dictionary, a calculator and an inquiring mind.

A Hint for the Classroom:

Use the lesson plans for Module 5 to guide your students activities. Have them pick a continent or area they are interested in for their project.

Teacher's Guide - Table of Contents

Converted to the IBM-PC by Al Wong, sirced03@southport.jpl.nasa.gov

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