ABSTRACT

Space-age technologies have revolutionized Earthscience, but this revolution has yet to extend to Earthscience education. Urban schools, however, can be at theforefront of reform because cities offer a wealth ofopportunities and resources for study. By relying onpublicly-available aerial and satellite perspectives ofurban areas and tapping into ground and historical dataand easily used visualization tools, students canunderstand their cities as dynamic, interconnectedsystems of human and environmental forces. Using thepowerful views of astronaut and satellite imagery tostudy Los Angeles, for example, students can acquireskills of inquiry, analysis and problem solving as theylearn how the city is shaped by its environment, climateand geography. Themes for urban Earth science studiesinclude regional ecology, climate, water resources andtransportation. In engaging students in Earth sciencestudies of their metropolitan areas, schools can meetcritical goals of state frameworks as well as of theNational Science Education Standards and the NationalGeography Education Standards. Educators can presentEarth science in a way that is relevant and accessible tostudents, helping to forge a science-literate public andplacing urban school districts in the vanguard of Earthscience education.

INTRODUCTION

Earth science education is in the midst of a revolution(National Conference on the Revolution in Earth andSpace Science Education) and the reasons are twofold.First, Earth science itself is emerging as an increasinglyvital discipline that informs critical endeavors rangingfrom urban planning and weather forecasting to energyprocurement and resource management. As a result,citizens will need to grasp basic Earth science concepts tomake decisions of economic, political, social andenvironmental consequences. The National ScienceEducation Standards recognizes this need by focusing on “Earth and Space Science” as a core domain of scienceeducation at all grade levels. The Standards recommendthat students experience Earth and space science as aprocess of inquiry, exploration and discovery.

Secondly, new generations of technology haveendowed Earth scientists with powerful tools that revealwith convincing clarity the planet’s systemiccomponents and their complex interactions. Resourceslike telecommunications, data visualizations, analysistools, remotely sensed imaging and a rich array ofsatellite sensors enable us to understand our world asnever before. Many of these resources are widelyavailable to classrooms, which fuels momentum forEarth science education reform. NASA, USGS, NOAAand other organizations post a wealth of satelliteimagery, animations, interactive maps and othervisualizations posted on the Internet. These resources

empower learners to see how Earth’s forces affect theirdaily lives and to understand the planet as a dynamicsystem.

Attempts to reform Earth science education in urbanschools, however, have had frustratingly little impact(AGI, National Status Report on K-12 Earth ScienceEducation, 2001). Even with major initiatives to installcomputers and telecommunication technology in urbanschools, there is disproportionately little effort todevelop educational activities that use these resources totruly engage and challenge students.

Ironically, urban areas are rich with opportunity forlearning and exploration in Earth science. Urban schoolsshould be at the cutting edge of reform, not only due tothe great need, but also because of the opportunities andresources inherent in cities, such as natural parks toexplore, water and other resource agencies with expertsand data to share, and a wealth of remotely-sensed image and GIS maps showing cities and their physical andhuman infrastructure in impressive detail. Viewingcities as resources and the focal point of study helpsstudents understand key aspects of the National ScienceEducation Standards, such as the “unifying concepts and processes” of science like “systems”—how componentsand processes interact. Cities offer a strong context forlearning and exploring systems. Water supplies, wasteprocessing, electric grids, food distribution andtransportation all interact to make a city work. Cities alsointeract with the physical environment—most are nearrivers, tall buildings are built where bedrock is close tothe surface, growth follows the natural landscape, and so on.

LEARNING THE EARTH SCIENCE OFCITIES

By focusing on Earth science topics of relevance to urbanstudents and by integrating satellite data sources, orbitaland aerial photography, and visualization tools into their science curricula, urban schools can support a wonderful and engaging array of student explorations of urbanenvironments. Students can study their cities from theunique perspective of space using images ofmetropolitan areas that range from decades of archivedimagery to the high-resolution, multi-spectral imageryfrom newer sensors. They can use interactive maps tooverlay and analyze regional data and use annotations to share their investigations with others.

These resources strongly complement ground-based and historical data. Students can cross-referenceremotely-sensed images with a progression of historicalmaps to study the development of their cities. They canlink detailed satellite images of rivers and waterwayswith data about water processing and distribution fromthe regional water commission. They can linksatellite-based data on surface geology with boreholedata collected for new building construction. Theseexperiences empower students to see their cities (andothers worldwide) with new eyes.

416 Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 52, n. 5, November, 2004, p. 416-419

Placing Urban Schools at the Forefront of the Revolution in Earth Science EducationDaniel Barstow Center for Earth and Space Science Education, TERC, Cambridge, MA 02140

Harvey Z. Yazijian Center for Earth and Space Science Education, TERC, Cambridge, MA 02140

Using remotely-sensed data and easy-to-usevisualization tools, minority and under-representedurban students can view their own environments withnew eyes, and better understand how Earth science andhuman geography relate to their own lives. They canunderstand their urban areas as marvelously dynamic,interconnected systems, full of data resources, and ripewith opportunities for inquiry and exploration usingdirect observation, satellite technology and computer-supported analysis. This powerful strategy can helpurban students learn essential concepts in Earth scienceand human geography, as well as skills of inquiry,analysis and problem solving.

LOS ANGELES: A SAMPLE URBANINVESTIGATION

Los Angeles is a city shaped by its physical environment.In figure 1, students can see the mountains surroundingthe Los Angeles region and fault lines caused by platetectonics. The threat of earthquakes is an underlyingpresence. Students can identify the fault lines and usedata on recent seismic activity to compare seismic valuesand corresponding risk in different parts of the city.

Los Angeles is a thirsty city. Los Angeles is located in one of the most arid regions of the U.S. Urban growthnow spills onto the Mojave Desert. The regional climate,evidenced by the greenness of local vegetation and thedistribution of aqueducts and reservoirs, can be seen insatellite color imagery. Satisfying Los Angeles waterdemands has helped shape regional politics in Californiaand the southwest. Students can map L.A.’s aqueductsand canals, and trace others throughout southernCalifornia, monitor cumulative rainfall, collect data onwater usage throughout the city, and tap into data anddiscussions about proposed solutions to water-relatedissues.

Los Angeles is a city on wheels. Looking at images ofLos Angeles from space, one is struck by the grid of

highways and roads throughout the entire basin (seefigure 2). Large-scale transportation of goods and peopleis a defining element of the region, and leads to severalpotential investigations about regional transportation.How are the various transport systems integrated andhow do they impact the physical environment? Trafficflow patterns can be overlaid and analyzed. Suchanalysis provides new insight on changes indevelopment and settlement patterns.

Putting these pieces into a larger context, studentscan see Los Angeles as a large metropolitan region,shaped by and reshaping its physical environment, thathas evolved over time into a complex multi-facetedregion, linked by ubiquitous transportation routesmoving people and goods throughout the region.Students begin to perceive how they and theirneighborhoods fit into this larger context, how suchknowledge might help them take better advantage ofwhat the city offers, and possibly find new answers toproblems affecting their neighborhoods. They alsoproject into the future to think about how the city mightchange in the next few decades based on projectedpopulation growth and limiting resources.

While this example focuses on the new insights andperspectives on urban areas afforded by satellites,on-the-ground field experiences are certainly anessential and equally important component of urbangeoscience education. Whether students simply explorethe areas around their school and neighborhood, orextend their field work to sites of unique interest (such asurban parks, water systems, exposed building sites,water processing plants, or weather forecasting centers),they see that Earth science is something that happens allaround them.

LEARNING GOALS

Such an approach to urban Earth science educationstrongly supports state frameworks as well as the

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Figure 1. The Los Angeles Basin. This image was created from digital elevation data, seismic data, Landsat images, and shuttle astronaut photos (Dr. Robert Crippen, NASA JPL).

National Science Education Standards and NationalGeography Education Standards. It enables teachers toaddress some of the following topics commonly found instate and national standards:

Science as Inquiry – Students ask questions abouturban environments, and pursue answers usingsatellite images, visualizations and other primarydata sources.

Earth Science – Students learn about cities as dynamicsystems and learn about Earth science in the contextof their local environments.

Sci ence and Tech nol ogy – Stu dents ex pe ri ence tech -nol ogy through vi su al iza tions, tele com mu ni ca tionsand re mote sens ing as an in te gral part of their sci -ence in quiry, ex plo ra tion and dis cov ery.

Science in Personal and Social Perspectives – Citiesfeature the interconnections among populations,resources and environments.

Unifying Concepts and Processes – Students willlearn about cities as systems, use images as evidence, explore how cities have both constancy and change,infer how cities evolve over time, and investigate theform and function of each city’s elements.

The World in Spatial Terms – Students will use images,maps and visualization technologies.

Places and Regions – Students can learn about thephysical environment and the human characteristicsof cities, exploring how they affect each other.

Physical Systems – Students can explore cities asecosystems (with natural and human elements) andinvestigate the differences in these ecologies aroundthe world.

Human Systems – Students can investigate humansettlement patterns in their own city and in othersaround the world, looking for similarities anddifferences in the patterns and functions of humansettlement in urban areas.

Interpreting the Past – Students can develop skills ofgeographic inference to find and interpret evidenceof past development based on recent images.Students can use historic maps as data and as acontrast with current remotely-sensed images.

Plan for the Future – Students can develop and apply arange of geographic skills to interpret the presentnature of the cities. Students also can use thisknowledge and these skills to better understandcurrent social and environmental problems.

SAMPLE THEMES FOR URBANINVESTIGATIONS

In studying their urban environments, students can relyon the many perspectives offered by multiple datasources with a range of spatial scales and spectralrepresentations, like interactive animations, overlayoptions and 3-D perspectives. The images (and studentexperiences) spark questions and focus attention on core

418 Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 52, n. 5, November, 2004, p. 416-419

Figure 2. Los Angeles at Night. An image of Los Angeles taken from the International Space Station.

themes. How have the mountains and coastline definedthe development of the city? What other environmentalfactors (e.g. water resources, petroleum resources andthe distribution of green belts, parks and naturepreserves) have influenced, or been impacted by, urbangrowth? How do students’ homes, schools andneighborhoods relate to the physical geography of thecity?

Sample themes for student investigations could include:

1. Regional Ecology (the “big picture”): Students cancombine imagery from NASA and others with localdata to explore the regional ecology of cities. Thiscould include describing (both qualitatively andquantitatively) topography, hydrology, soil types,agricultural production patterns, and so on. Students can analyze these variables from the inner city to theoutlying areas, and look for similarities anddifferences among cities.

2. Natural Hazards and Disasters: Floods, volcanoes,blizzards, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis andother natural phenomena can seriously impact citieswhere population density and dependence on thesurrounding environment are high. Students canexplore the effect of potential volcanoes in Tokyo,with it population of more than 12 million people,and Seattle, a much smaller city with suburbs thatspread up the slopes of solidified mudflows fromMount Rainier.

3. Climate: The continental climate of Moscow includes sweltering summers and six-month periods whensnow is common. Minneapolis has somewhat coolersummers and cold but dry winters with little snowaccumulation. In contrast, Phoenix enjoys a warm,sunny, and snow-free climate but receives less than 8 inches of precipitation annually. Students couldexplore the factors that account for both thesimilarities and differences in climate for these threecities.

4. Water Resources: As cities grow, some exceed theirwater supplies and need new and sometimes distantsources. Los Angeles pipes water from the centraland northern parts of the state as well as from theColorado River. In contrast, Riyadh, Saudi Arabiadesalinates seawater, taps subterranean reservoirsand purifies and recycles 200,000 cubic meters ofwater each day. Students could explore thehydrology and the water supplies for both cities.

5. Transportation: While students may appreciate acity’s transportation systems, they are less likely tounderstand that transportation lines have alwaysbeen the lifelines of cities. New York City’s positionat the mouth of the Hudson River and Manhattan’slong shoreline and deep water all contributed to thatcity’s emergence as a major trade center. Stockholm,Sweden sits at a strategic point where shipping canpass from the Baltic Sea to inland waterways.

SAMPLE WEB RESOURCES

There are many data sets available for students on theWorld Wide Web. Many feature search engines or othermechanisms that allow learners to access images of

specific urban areas. As starting points, here are twooutstanding examples:

NASA Earth Observatory – a wonderful site withweekly updates on Earth science in the news,featured images and links to NASA satellite datasources. Often the images and stories feature urbanareas. (earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Astronaut photos of cities – NASA astronauts havetaken over 400,000 photos of Earth from space –many of these photos show cities around the world.These will help students compare cities globally andsee the changes over the few decades of humanflight. (eol.jsc.nasa.gov/cities)

CONCLUSIONS

The revolution in Earth science research enabled by thespace-age perspective and visualization technologieshave radically transformed the practice of Earthscience—especially in providing new and deeperinsights into Earth as a system. As the movement growsto infuse this revolution into the classroom, urbanschools have the opportunity to be at the cutting-edge ofreform.

Student investigations of cities, such as the examplesabove, offer urban schools an opportunity to advance tothe forefront of Earth science education. Educators canpresent Earth science in ways that are relevant andaccessible to their students. Students, after all, will studythe environment they know best and care most about.

Moreover, urban investigations offer teachers apowerful strategy for meeting state and national sciencestandards. They can bring true inquiry into classroomsand introduce students to visualization technologies. Instudying their urban environments, students can learnvital Earth science concepts, such as every environment,from global to local levels, is comprised of dynamic andinteracting systems. They can learn to access, compareand analyze a variety of sources, from orbitalphotography and remotely-sensed satellite imagery toground data and historical records.

Perhaps most importantly, viewing cities throughthe illuminating lens of Earth science can help produce ascience-literate public. It can motivate minority andunder-represented urban students to pursue careers inscience, mathematics, engineering and technology. Itmight even inspire the next generation of explorers fromthe ranks of our urban students.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper builds on the work by the NationalConference on the Revolution in Earth and Space ScienceEducation, funded by National Science FoundationGrant #EAR-9978346, and Exploring Earth, funded byNational Science Foundation Grant #4025.3.

REFERENCES

AGI, National Status Report on K-12 Earth ScienceEducation, 2001.

Barstow, Daniel and Geary, Ed, editors, 2002, Blueprintfor Change: Report from the National Conference onthe Revolution in Earth and Space ScienceEducation, TERC, Cambridge, MA.

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