Use of Low Cost Computational Platforms for Integration of K-12 Education and Research

Collection of data for environmental research offer opportunities for inquiry based learning and research experience at all educational levels. Mobile platforms and low cost computing systems such as Raspberry Pi has made it feasible to implement, even in K-12 classrooms, inquiry based learning approaches with complex data collection and analysis requirements. This study will report on two examples of educational outreach resulting from tools developed for environmental research. One example is mobile application developed for collection of land use and land cover mapping, which in conjunction with Google Earth Engine is used in K-12 classrooms for learning about biomes. As a part of this activity, students use mobile application to geo locate samples of different land cover types. The data collected is used in Google Earth Engine to classify satellite data and generate information on distribution of land cover in their neighborhood. The other example is the use of Raspberry Pi for collection of meteorological data for hands-on learning of weather. Implementation of these activities as inquiry based learning exercise for middle school will be discussed.