Tutorial: Watching over our planet from space A kit for kids!

A wonderful first look at the subject of "Remote Sensing", this education kit is intended for students 11 to 15 years of age. It contains an introduction to remote sensing, twelve hands-on activities and a supplemental reading section, all rich with satellite imagery, photography and illustration. Students will become aware of the nature of satellite imagery and how it can be used to monitor environmental issues such as oil spills, forest fires, flood damage, mine wastes, forest clearcutting and land use.

The kit can be used in a self-directed manner and comes as a complete teaching tool. Using a paper copy, printed in colour, students follow clear instructions to interpret satellite images, making measurements, finding interesting features and answering questions.

Follow the "Downloading Instructions" link to obtain this kit (in PDF format), then print it in colour.

Permission for Use

This educational material within these tutorials is provided as is and may be copied in any form and used for non-commercial purposes provided that the content of the original material is not altered and it is clearly indicated that the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (formerly Canada Centre for Remote Sensing), Natural Resources Canada is the originator of this material.

Table of Contents

• 1.
  • 1.1 Acknowledgements
  • 1.2 Teachers
  • 1.3 About this tutorial

• 2. Notes for Students
  • 2.1 What is Remote Sensing?
  • 2.2 What can you see on a satellite image?
  • 2.3 Who uses Remote Sensing and why?

• 3. Activities
  • 3.1 Which is which?
  • 3.2 Find it!
  • 3.3
    • 3.3a Measure this (Northern Saskatchewan)
    • 3.3b Measure this (Halifax)
  • 3.4 Clearcutting in the forest
  • 3.5 Oil spill danger
  • 3.6 Crop types
  • 3.7 Forest fire
  • 3.8 Navigating a ship through ice
  • 3.9 You figure it out!
  • 3.10 Land use mapping
  • 3.11 At a mine site
  • 3.12 A different perspective

• 4. More about Remote Sensing
  • 4.1 Why does remote sensing work so well?
  • 4.2 Frequently asked questions

• Appendices
  • Appendix A  Using a Dot Grid to Measure Area
  • Appendix B  Using a Compass
  • Appendix C  Using Cartesian Co-ordinates
  • Appendix D  Answers to Activities