EXPLORES! (EXPloring and Learning the Operations and Resources of Environmental Satellites!) began with state of Florida educational funding in 1992. Professors Paul Ruscher and Kevin Kloesel (the latter now at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey) started the project with 30 teachers from Florida, who implemented the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Direct Readout program. This program involved the installation of weather satellite receiving stations at schools, using hardware (antenna, analog/digital converter, radio receiver, personal computer) and software (satellite tracking, image processing), or a software-only option for distribution of live satellite data via the World Wide Web (WWW). The program was successful enough that by 2000, over 230 schools statewide now have active weather satellite receiving stations, utilized across the curriculum. State funding has continued on an annual basis through the present academic year. In addition, selected teachers from other states (Georgia, Montana, Alaska, Michigan) have also elected to participate in the program. After developing frameworks within which new curricula could be developed and incorporated into the Sunshine State (Florida) Science Standards (4S), some teachers began working on implementation with the National Science Education Standards (NSES).
Intellectual Merits With the expansion of interest in computers, imagery, and real-time data in inquiry-based science classrooms, the EXPLORES! project provides a unique combination of new approaches with imagery-based applications that are suitable for expansion in a national effort. This project leads the availability of EXPLORES! into the nation's schools, and provides a complete curriculum unit for teachers which follows state and national guidelines, and incorporates science in satellite and tropical meteorology at University, NASA, and NOAA centers. The scope of the project also includes space-based radar and satellite imagery beyond the weather satellites, NOAA and GOES. A CD-ROM of curricula now in use in the EXPLORES! program in Florida will be available through DLESE for nationwide use as part of the effort, as is our entire updated history of the U. S. weather satellite program.
In addition, a cadre of twenty teachers from Miami/Dade County, Florida has been recruited to participate in an online course entitled "Using Geoscience Imagery in the Classroom", offered through the Office of Distributed Distance Learning and Department of Meteorology at FSU to help develop and test all new educational materials developed as part of our teacher development.
Broader Impacts of Proposed Work Educational materials will be developed based on imagery from the following space-based platforms:
- NOAA polar orbiting weather satellites - GOES geostationary weather satellites - Landsat earth resource satellites - MODIS aboard the Terra/Aqua earth resource/atmosphere satellites - QuikSCAT aboard the SeaWinds satellite
Further, materials are being developed for better comprehension of radar imagery from the array of NEXRADs, or WSR 88D Doppler radars. All materials are being developed with utility of our participating teachers in mind; however, we are also be cognizant of the need to make them more widely available and relevant, and therefore all materials are also being developed for submission to DLESE, for use by any middle and secondary Earth science teacher.
