Integrating applied remote sensing methodology in secondary education

Abstract

Remote sensing is a fast growing technology with an increasing need for highly qualified employees. Especially in governmental sectors regarding ecology, disaster management, or traffic control the need for data and applications is growing rapidly. The increasing amount of remote sensing satellite missions and the generated products also mirrors this development. By contrast the public perception of the development that is taking place in this technology, regarding higher spatial and spectral resolution, and the resultant benefits are significantly low. In secondary education classes in Germany remote sensing and related products are inexistent, although the use of information technology and methods are explicitly requested in recent curricula. The presented study aims at the integration of remote sensing in secondary education. In cooperation with eight participating schools an interdisciplinary didactical approach is developed to integrate remote sensing in regular classes by linking regular education standards with technology that is new and fascinating for students. In the past, experiments using satellite imagery in high school education often failed because of rudimentary computer infrastructure, the lack of knowledge about this technology on the part of the teachers, and especially because of a huge amount of extra work for teachers.In a first step regular class issues were identified that are appropriate for the sustainable integration of Remote Sensing methodology. Afterwards first material and teaching units were prepared providing regular topics supported by satellite imagery and digital image processing methods.

The importance of remote sensing in geography education

“…Interviews and questionnaires conducted with teachers reveal that inadequate software and hardware and a lack of expertise in this area pose major problems. (Voss et al 2007;Hodam, Rienow, Jürges 2019;Dannwolf et al 2020).…”

“…Remote sensing is interdisciplinary in character and thus enables students to apply knowledge from several fields in any work with images (Voss et al 2007;Somantri 2016;Hadjimitsis, Kyriakidis, Akylas 2020). The multidisciplinarity of remote sensing studies integrates the subjects of geography, biology, physics, mathematics and computer science.…”

Exploring the importance for promoting Earth observation in education

“…Remote Sensing uses an interdisciplinary approach (see Table 1) because it involves a combination of aspects of different fields, such as Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Computer Sciences and requires various tasks and skills [2]. Essentially, Remote Sensing holds an interdisciplinary component that enables students to use cross-linked thinking to deal with a range of curriculum-specific topics in a problem-solving manner [3], [4]. In natural science classes like Math, Physics or Computer Sciences, the basic principles of Remote Sensing can be introduced, while in Geography or Biology which are considered as applied sciences, satellite data can be analyzed for further comprehension [3].…”

“…Essentially, Remote Sensing holds an interdisciplinary component that enables students to use cross-linked thinking to deal with a range of curriculum-specific topics in a problem-solving manner [3], [4]. In natural science classes like Math, Physics or Computer Sciences, the basic principles of Remote Sensing can be introduced, while in Geography or Biology which are considered as applied sciences, satellite data can be analyzed for further comprehension [3]. In applied sciences classes, the teacher can pose environmental questions that require students to answer via the use of Remote Sensing data [3].…”

“…In natural science classes like Math, Physics or Computer Sciences, the basic principles of Remote Sensing can be introduced, while in Geography or Biology which are considered as applied sciences, satellite data can be analyzed for further comprehension [3]. In applied sciences classes, the teacher can pose environmental questions that require students to answer via the use of Remote Sensing data [3]. Table 1.…”