[SIR-CED LOGO]

SIR-C Education Program (SIR-CED)

Educational Goals

Welcome to the SIR-C Education Program (SIR-CED). SIR-CED is an education initiative based around the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's imaging radar program and is designed for Middle School and High School students. The goals of this initiative are to:

  1. Help improve the overall performance of US students in Middle School and High School in mathematics, science and geography, in accordance with the national goals for education.

  2. Provide an easy-to-use set of resources for teachers in the modern classroom.

  3. Spark students' interest in earth science, mathematics, computing, geography, physics and engineering as subjects they might consider for college.

  4. Encourage students to think about their environment and how to monitor it. The earth's environment presents problems that concern us all. The headlines are full of dire warnings about global warming and the greenhouse effect, or instances of earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes. Many people are concerned enough to want to find out more. Young people in particular, will flock to buy magazines and attend exhibitions concerning the environment, and are often concerned enough to join in demonstrations or organize petitions which address environmental issues. Ask your students how many of them have a T-shirt with Save the Rain Forest written on it, for example.

    What Is SIR-CED?

    SIR-CED is based around NASA's imaging radar program. Imaging radar is a key technology used by scientists to monitor the Earth's environment. SIR-C, or Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C, is the latest generation of imaging radars produced by JPL for NASA, and flew on the Space Shuttle in April 1994 and October 1994. SIR-C represents the state-of-the-art in radar imaging technology, and the collected radar data offers scientists a unique look at the Earth from space. Among other things, scientists will use the SIR-C radar images to view areas of the earth that are normally obscured by clouds, to monitor deforestation, to search for buried river channels in the Sahara Desert, and to estimate the extent of flooding in river basins.

    The SIR-CED program is designed to help meet some of the goals set out in NASA's Strategic Plan for Education (see Further Reading ). In putting together this initiative, NASA and JPL's aim is to reach as many Middle School and High School students as possible in order to:

    1. Carry the message that NASA is actively pursuing Earth observation programs under the umbrella of Mission to Planet Earth.

    2. Teach them that imaging radars are an important and current part of these programs.

    3. Show how imaging radars work and how they are used to monitor the world around us.

    4. Develop practical experiments and procedures to assist educators in teaching earth science, computing and mathematical principles to Middle School and High School students, in Southern California and across the United States.

    Although some segments of the SIR-CED program are designed around the SIR-C missions, the program is designed to be used with data from a wide range of imaging radars. Examples of data from earlier imaging radar missions can be found on the CD-ROM accompanying this package, including images from Magellan mission to the planet Venus. The software included in the SIR-CED package should be flexible enough to handle radar image data from future missions, too. The SIR-CED program should be useful as an introduction to imaging radar and its role in monitoring the earth's environment over the next decade or so.

    Who Should Get Involved?

    The SIR-CED package is designed as a module for Middle Schools and High Schools. The documentation you are reading contains Lesson Plans and Presentation Materials to use in the classroom, and a Teachers' Guide which can be used as a reference book or to supplement the classroom materials. The SIR-CED material can be taught as part of an earth science class, a computing course, or a geography class. Undoubtedly, teachers will find some of the images useful in teaching other subjects as well.

    The SIR-CED package allows students to learn about NASA's Earth observation program, how imaging radar forms a key part of that program, and how to use the software provided on the CD-ROM to analyze radar image data in the same way scientists do. Then, having learned the necessary skills, they can tackle a project in which they pick a site, investigate the data available, form a hypothesis about what they see and then test it against their observations. The time spent on this material is up to the individual teacher. Some teachers have used the material as a one-hour supplement to their usual material. Others have spent several weeks on SIR-CED with their class, with a one-hour period each day. Some material may be too advanced for Middle School students and the teacher may wish to skip over those parts of the package. For High School students, progress through the first stages of the package may be too slow, so the teacher may elect to head for the project part of the package sooner.

    The Components

    The SIR-CED package consists of the following components:
    1. Teachers' Resource Guide
    2. Presentation Materials
    3. Lesson Guides, including activities for students
    4. A CD-ROM containing:
      • radar images
      • shuttle hand-held photographs taken by the astronauts
      • digitized location and topographic maps
      • ground photos
      • video clips from the SIR-C missions
      • software for image display and analysis
      • documentation
    5. A selection of videos about imaging radar
    Electronic copies of the Teachers' Guide, Presentation materials and Lesson Guides can all be found on the SIR-CED CD-ROM. You'll find lesson plans and presentation materials to use in the classroom in the Lessons and Slides directories. You'll also find a Teachers Guide to use as a reference book in the Teachers directory. It's a good idea to introduce the CD to your students by running the Guided Tour.

    The Teachers' Resource Guide was written to provide detailed information for teachers using the SIR-CED package. It is divided up into five Modules:

    • Module 1 - Mission to Planet Earth
    • Module 2 - How Radar Images the Earth
    • Module 3 - What is SIR-C/X-SAR?
    • Module 4 - Image Examples
    • Module 5 - Exploration and Discovery

    Module 1 introduces NASA's Mission to Planet Earth and how scientists use remote sensing to monitor the environment. Module 2 answers the question 'What is imaging radar?' and describes what radar images mean. Module 3 addresses the SIR-C/X-SAR mission: what it is; what the scientific aims of the mission are; who is involved, etc. Module 4 looks at sample data sets for some of the sites selected by the SIR-C science team. Module 5 sets the students off on their own, exploring the data contained on the SIR-CED CD-ROM, discovering things for themselves and then reporting on them as a scientist would.

    Corresponding to Modules 1, 2 and 3 of the SIR-CED package is a set of Presentation Materials. These consist of viewgraphs or overheads which can be copied onto a transparency and used with an overhead projector.

    The Lesson Guide is also divided up into five modules, following the format of the Teachers' Resource Guide. The Lesson Guide consists of planned activities for the students, which can be photocopied and handed out, or distributed electronically by copying them onto your students' computers. A number of the lessons involve computer activities using data from the SIR-CED CD-ROM.

    The SIRCED03 CD-ROM is the second in a series and is a post-SIR-C launch look at imaging radar and at some the sites imaged by SIR-C/X-SAR. It contains a collection of images (including radar images from earlier missions), documentation (including the Teachers' Resource Guide, Presentation Materials and Lesson Guide), and software for displaying the image data and some of the text files. This data set is unique; never before has such a comprehensive set of radar data and supporting data been collected together.

    A video to accompany the SIR-CED package is also available (from NASA CORE). It contains an introduction to the role imaging radar can play in monitoring the earth's environment (the EOS SAR video); a time-lapse movie of the SIR-C and X-SAR antenna under construction; a movie showing imaging radar data being collected on an aircraft; and some examples of radar images from the Magellan mission to Venus.

    The documentation which accompanies the SIR-CED package has been written in Helvetica 14, a font with a fairly large typeface. This was done so that the material would be legible if projected onto an overhead projector screen, straight off the computer screen (using an LCD perhaps). Thus if a point requires further explanation, the teacher can pick out the appropriate part of the Teachers' Resource Guide and display it for the class.

    What Is Needed?

    A description of the hardware and software requirements for this CD is available in the How Do I Use The CD? section. If only one computer is available, you might also want an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) device to project your computer display onto an overhead projector screen or a hook-up to project the computer display onto a TV screen.

    The computer skills required to use the computer part of the SIR-CED package are the basic skills such as pointing, clicking, opening a file, dragging, copying and saving a file. For a few file types, the appropriate application should be launched first by double-clicking, then the file can be opened from within the application. We have tried to keep the size of most files on the CD-ROM below 1.4 Mbytes, so they can be copied and distributed using a floppy disk, and also so that they do not require vast amounts of memory to open them.

    You may also need:

    • Access to a photocopying machine
    • An overhead projector and screen
    • A good Atlas or a prominent map of the world
    • A VHS video player (optional)
    • A Television (optional)

    Acknowledgments

    The PC Special Edition of the SIRCED03 CD-ROM was produced by:

    Special thanks to the JPL AIRSAR group for allowing us to use their CD writer during the development of this CD. We thank Priscilla Beckman and Nancy Leon for their help. We also thank Larry Biehl and David Landgrebe of Purdue University for permission to use the Multispec software. Lastly, we thank Netscape Communications for permission to use their Netscape 2.0 software and Apple Computers for permission to use their Quicktime Movie Player software.

    The original SIR-CED package was put together by the efforts of the following people at JPL:

    • Jay Trimble
    • Anthony Freeman
    • Ellen O'Leary
    • Shannon McConnell
    • Marcos Alves
    • Bruce Chapman
    and
    • Kathleen Crandall
    • Karl Erickson

    Kathy Crandall was formerly a teacher at La Canada High School and is now relocated to Northern California. Karl Erickson, as a summer student, assembled and formatted a great deal of data for the CD-ROM. Many of the images used for the Pre-SIRC directories on the CD-ROM were collected by JoBea Way's Durfee Foundation students for summer 1993 (Alicyn Campbell, Freedom Dean, Timothy Garrett, Hillary Hartley, Aaron Moshiashwill, Jonathon Woodring, Eric Mortenson, Eric Cooper, Marta Rives and Robert Parrott).

    The authors would like to thank: Mike Sander and Diane Evans of the JPL SIR-C Project Office for their encouragement and support; JoBea Way for use of the Kidsat room and facilities; Dick Monson, Miriam Baltuck and Shelby Tilford of NASA Headquarters for their support; Rich Alvidrez, David Seidel and Ben Seaberry of JPL's Teacher Resource Center for their welcome advice, for starting the JPL teacher enhancement program, and allowing us to use their facilities; T.H. Culhane of Jefferson High and Scott Phelps of John Muir High Schools for allowing us to test some of our ideas on their students and for their comments; the Durfee Foundation for their financial support of the Durfee students; Jenny Cruz for her help in using the Macintosh and for her patience; Lyn Norikane of Vexcel Corporation who wrote the software for the Macsigma0 package; Annie Richardson of the JPL Radar Data Center for her help in finding just the right images; Steve Adams of JPL for some great DEM's and other images; Mike Martin, Kristy Kawasaki and David Hecox at JPL's Planetary Data Center for their excellent help in producing the actual CD; Bobbi Grable for her help with typing and other stuff and all our other colleagues at JPL who assisted us in any way.

    Further Reading

    Throughout the documents included in this package, we have avoided the use of technical references, since we feel that the SIR-CED package should stand alone, and not require a great deal of plowing through reference books. We also felt that the resources to access reference books or papers might be unavailable to some teachers using this package. Nevertheless, some background reading to explore the subjects addressed in SIR-CED might prove useful:
    1. NASA's Strategic Plan for Education: A Strategy for Change 1993-1998. Available from:

        NASA Office of Human Resources and Education
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration
        Washington, D.C. 20546
        Phone: (202) 453 2500
        Fax: (202) 755 4574

      Contains information on NASA's education programs and addresses for NASA's Teacher Resource Centers across the US.

    2. Introduction to the Physics and Techniques of Remote Sensing by Dr. Charles Elachi. Available from:

        John Wiley and Sons, Publishers (1987)
        New York
        ISBN 0-471-84810-7

      Contains a college-level introduction to the physics and techniques of remote sensing, including a good overview of imaging radar.

    3. HOLT Physical Science by William L. Ramsey, Clifford R. Phillips, Lucretia A. Gabriel, Frank M. Watenpaugh and James F. McGuirk. Available from:

        Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Publishers (1986)
        New York
        ISBN 0-03-001927-3

      Contains a good introduction to many of the physical concepts which underlie remote sensing.

    NASA Educational Resources

    SIR-CED includes written and computer activities on concepts of remote sensing in general and NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. More information about Mission to Planet Earth and many other of NASA's educational programs can be obtained on the World Wide Web through NASA's Spacelink site. This can be found at URL:

    Spacelink lists educational materials which are available through NASA's network of Teacher Resource Centers and through NASA's Central Operation of Resources for Educators (CORE), at the address below:

      NASA CORE
      Lorain County JVS
      15181 Route 58 South
      Oberlin, OHIO 44074
      Tel: (216) 774 1051 (ext. 293/294)
      Fax: (216) 774 2144
    The Imaging Radar program also has a World Wide Web site at URL:

    A special educator's section can be found there, including a Web-linked bulletin board through which questions about imaging radar in general or SIR-CED in particular can be raised (and answered). For direct links to these internet sites, and more, go to SIRCED03 On-Line Companion and NASA Resources.

    Guided Tour Radar Images: An Overview Teacher's Guide - Table of Contents

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

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    4800 Oak Grove Drive
    Pasadena, CA 91109