This project (2018-1-SE01-KA201-039098) has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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TITLE
ESA - Classroom Resources for Climate Detectives
LEARNING OBJECT
Earth’s climate
NAME OF PRODUCER
European Space Agency
TYPE OF PRODUCT
Web Site/Portal, Downloadable material
SUBJECT TAUGHT
Math, Natural Science, Physics, Technology
LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE
Medium
TARGET GROUP AGE
14 – 16 years old
DESCRIPTION
The ESA – Classroom resources for Climate Detectives webpage is aimed to teachers that want to find inspirational resources to engage students to learn about Earth’s climate and how to monitor our planet from space. The site is a collection of activities both for primary and secondary schools, in a multidisciplinary approach, involving subjects as geography, science, physics, math, i.e. STEM disciplines. Each activity is ready for download and is made of a very complete document describing the whole activity. The level of the documentation available is medium/high, well thought out and organized. The teacher can have access to several sources to create scaffolding for lessons about different subjects. Students, thanks to the dedicated sheets and activities, under the supervision of their teacher, will feel comfortable and supported in their learning path.
COMMENTS
The major point of strength of the downloadable documents is the structure of the documents itself, that is made of these items: fast facts (including subjects involved, age range, type of activity, complexity, lesson time required, cost of the needed materials, location if indoors or outdoors, type of materials included ICT, keywords); learning objectives; summary of activities; introduction; background; activity; student worksheets; links; annex.
The reliability of the scientific information is high. The annex are a valid tool for deepening and going above searching for articles or videos in the ESA website directly related to the scientific research activities of ESA.
The classroom resources are often part of a set of resources developed by ESA’s Education Office in collaboration with ESERO, the European Space Education Resource Office born from a collaboration between ESA and the national partners. The review of this site deserves a dedicate space of its own.

TEACHER'S COMMENT
Exploring this site as a teacher you immediately want to test the proposed activities thanks to the incredible topics proposed, thanks to the detailed description provided, thanks to the level of attention placed on all the details and the more you know and find out the more the desire to try and involve the students increases.
Just to give an example, here will be described one of the proposed activities for secondary school students, even if very interesting ones are also available for primary school.
The resource reviewed is titled “Infrared Webcam Hack” – Using infrared light to observe the world in a new way. This activity is available in English and Danish but others have more languages options.
The declared learning objectives are the identification of the different types of electromagnetic radiation; the description of different applications of infrared light; the use of tools available on the internet to collect and analyze satellite data; the understanding of how infrared light can be used to monitor the health of vegetation; the identification of false colour and true colour satellite images.
To achieve these objectives a set of three activities is designed to enable students to understand the electromagnetic spectrum and observe infrared radiation through the modification of a cheap webcam. It will enable discussion of how infrared radiation can be used to obtain information that is not available using visible light. Students will also analyze satellite images providing them with a context to understand why it is useful to “see” in infrared. Beside the already mentioned description of the index, a short video shows and explains how to prepare and modify the webcam for the experiment.
Each step of the activities is well described and the teacher’s guide is complete and accurate; the students’ sheets gather issues to discuss and exercises aimed to make the scientific principles faced well understood and clear.
All the other resources both for primary and secondary school proposed on this website enjoy the same care and effectiveness.