Download Locating Useable NASA Data

Locating Useable NASA (and other) Data
for Earth and Space Science Inquiry
• What and where are the best NASA
(and other) data resources for
engaging pre-service teachers in
Earth and space science inquiry?
• How can these data resources be
used for inquiry?
What Qualities Should Data Resources
Have for Effective Classroom Use?
Best Practice Tips: Get your audience involved using their experience; build
ownership.
What Qualities Should Data Resources
Have for Effective Classroom Use?
• Easy to find
• Easy to access – (relatively) simple user interface
• Easy to manipulate – so students can do something
meaningful with them; visual data, graphic data
(Excel)
• Well-sampled (in space, time, etc.)
• Elicits scientific questions that can be addressed
through further investigation
• Other qualities?
What NASA - or other - Data
Resources Have You Found Useful?
• Jot down a few Earth or space
science data resources that you think
lend themselves to open inquiry
Earth
Solar System
CD!
Beyond
• Share as we go!
Best Practice Tips: Get your audience involved using their experience; build
ownership.
Here’s What We Found
Earth … A Work in Progress
 NASA Earth Observatory Data and Images
CD!
 Earth Impact Data Base
 IRIS Seismic Data
DISCLAIMER: ALL of
these data sets will require
some playing around to
get what you want … but
they are nearer to useable
than much of what’s out
there ….
 TOMS Ozone Data (A little more advanced)
 USGS Real Time Water Data
 And More!
 And Links to Data-Rich Teaching Resources:
 Student Observation Network
 Discovering Plate Boundaries
Other Datasets?
Best Practice Tips: Poweryak at your audience … in a monotone …
Here’s What We Found
Solar System … A Work in Progress
 Mars Phoenix Lander Images
Solar System Simulator – more than Galilean moons!
 Solar Activity – Sunspots, Tracking a Solar Storm, Solar Images
 Cratering databases (planets and moons)
 Project Spectra @ LASP – uses planetary spectra
CD!
 SDSS SkyServer – plots planets and asteroids in sky.
Other Datasets?
Here’s What We Found
And Beyond … A Work in Progress
CD!
 Globe at Night
 SDSS SkyServer – images and spectra of stars and galaxies 
star types, galaxy types, redshifts  Hubble Law, cluster properties
 Hubble Deep Field folder on CD
 Amazing Space – “Hubble Deep Field Academy” and
“Galaxy Hunter” (also uses HDFs but with more statistics).
 US National Virtual Observatory -- oodles of data but hard to use
 Extra-Solar Planets Dataset
 Stellarium – more sophisticated planetarium program
Other Datasets?
Now It’s Your Turn!
Launch into Some Open-Ended Inquiry!
• Browse the data CD
• Select 2 data sets that relate to what you teach and align with your
state science standards
Crater data base and impacts = natural hazard
Sunspot activity = characteristics of the sun
• Compare and contrast these 2 data sets re: desired qualities
• Identify scientific questions that the data set(s) can address
What is the relationship between sunspot activity and Earth’s
temperature?
How does cratering size and density on the Moon compare to that
on Mars?
Dig In! Use the Electronic Poster Slides PowerPoint on the CD to
present your results (recall the disclaimer!).
What Did You Think of the Resources?
Were they easy to find?
Were they easy to access – simple user
interface?
Were they easy to manipulate – visually or
graphically?
Did they adequately sample the parameter
space?
Did they elicit fruitful scientific questions?
Other qualities?
Questions?
Best Practice Tips: Allow time to clarify discussion; be responsive to audience.