Studying the oceans, scientists are using TOPEX/Poseidon satellite data to learn how earth’s climate is effected by the ocean. A new educational CD using the data from TOPEX/Poseidon satellite has been developed to introduce students to the study of the ocean and climate . This CD was produced at Jet Propulsion Laboratories and is part of the TOPEX/Poseidon Satellite Project which is a joint project by NASA and CNES ( the French space program) to research our ocean climate from space. The CD includes interactive activities
using some of the data collected by the satellite in which students are given a problem and must learn to look for and interpret the satellite data on sea surface temperature and currents in order to complete their mission. There is information on various careers in Oceanography and interviews with real oceanographers in the field. A complete curriculum including glossaries, related movies and outstanding graphics is included in the CD. Teachers are able to print activities directly from the CD. Students can work on “missions” part of an ongoing project and return to the point that they finished in the previous session. This is so that they can participate in many of the hand-on activities and use the CD as a data resource as well as an
activity in and of itself.
I have used the pilot version of this CD in my classroom this year and last year and will share some of the student projects we worked on. The first year we studied ocean currents and the oceans effect on the global climate. Students in my high school class researched currents effect on climate in specific regions, such as the Gulf of Mexico and it’s effect on the animals living in this environment. They wanted to know if whales feeding in the gulf were using density currents in the gulf to locate food.
This year my 6th grade class wanted to follow El Nino and compare the 1997/98 El Nino with the 1982 El Nino. They looked at changes in water temperature and local weather as well as animal and plant populations. They learned about the “wedge” of warm water created by the change of the Trade winds and were able to use the data from the CD to create a model to share with other students in a presentation of their findings. They compared El Nino’s effects on coastal as well as inland climates in our area and practiced this activity by using one of the scenarios in the CD.
The CD was a wonderful resource for my student s to learn how oceanographers use ocean topography data, sea surface temperature to monitor currents and gain an increased understanding of our oceans and climate and to be able to correlate this with the way meteorologists use atmospheric pressure maps to predict earth’s weather.
The CD is available free to educators and is a wonderful new tool in teaching Oceanography and Meteorology.