NEWS 2007

El Paso GLOBE off to Spain!

The GLOBE Program Coordinator, Robin Hoffer, PhD, from EL Paso Partnership and Albert Ortiz with Joel Gilbert will be presenting a poster/paper at the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium in Barcelona, Spain during July, 2007.

The focus of the presentation will be about the  El Paso flood that was reported on August 1, 2006. El Paso experienced 7 1/2 inches (~ 185 mm) in 3 hours.  This was especially damaging since most of it occurred on the Franklin Mountain which bisects the city of El Paso and towers over 3000 ft. above it. 

In the photo to the left you can see Dr. Hoffer walking where once there were torrents of water eroding the mountainside and transporting large boulders.

The rain was so forceful that it even washed away part of the road and walkway in the Franklin Mountains.

GLOBE graphs of the rainfall during the rains of July, Aug. and Sept. 2006 will be prominent on their poster. For more information please read the following abstract.

GLOBE Students in Sunland Park, New Mexico Study Satellite Images to Decipher August 2006 Flood Damage.

Dr. Robin L. Hoffer, Albert Ortiz and Joel Gilbert
University of Texas at El Paso
Department of Geological Sciences
500 W University St.
El Paso, Texas 79968
[email protected]

Abstract
Students at Desert View Elementary School in Sunland Park, New Mexico have been involved in the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program for several years.  As part of their GLOBE instruction teacher Albert Ortiz introduced his students to the basic concepts of satellite imagery and remote sensing. The students were first shown how the images are composed of tiny dots called “pixels”, and that a pixel represents the instantaneous field of view of the ground surface imaged.  Students were also taught that the ground surface area represented by one pixel in a satellite image is called “ground resolution” and that the greater the number of pixels per inch, the greater the resolution.  The students also learned that satellites transmit these pixel images to ground stations as digital signals, which represent the ground surface being imaged.  It is through these lessons, ground surface reflectivity and light’s behavior as it is sent back to a satellite’s sensors, that Ortiz is able to demonstrate to these elementary school students how these images are made.   In these lessons, a grayscale image, which may vary in tone, is presented to the class.  Then false color is added to emphasize a particular feature, such as vegetation.  The class is then introduced to the electromagnetic spectrum and is shown how different wavelengths of light produce the false color images that appear in satellite imagery.  They are taught that satellite sensors operate by picking up the way light is reflected from various surfaces.  The students are using this knowledge to study changes in their watershed caused by the August 2006 monsoons.  The Sunland Park, New Mexico, Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas region experienced severe flooding as a result of torrential rains that hit the area in August 2006. Ortiz requested and received a set of aerial photographs of damage in Juarez from the Mexican Government and LandSat images of El Paso, Texas from GLOBE headquarters taken before and after the flooding.  Using these copies, he instructed the students to study the changes that had taken place in the watersheds of the Juarez and Franklin Mountains over that 3 month period.  He had the students tape transparent sheets over the images and label major streets and sites e.g. their school.  They were then asked to study the images to see what effect land development, particularly in areas where major arroyos drain the mountain slopes, added to the flooding and damage at the base of the mountains.   Through studying and comparing the aerial photographs and NASA images the students were able to see how much change had taken place in the arroyo drainage both from natural causes and by residential development on the mountain slopes. They also learned what valuable tools satellite images have become.

Informal Educators Meet GLOBE

January 11-12, 2007

On January 11-12, 2007, The Texas Environmental Education Advisory Committee (TEEAC) hosted its annual meeting to over 70 informal environmental educators.  TEEAC coordinates with other state agencies and is charged with the development of environmental education materials.  It cooperates with a network of 120 providers of environmental education professional development, including universities, industry, museums, and nature centers. This network of TEEAC Sites and Programs helps assure that teacher professional development offered by formal and non-formal providers is educationally sound and consistent with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

The GLOBE Program was featured at this meeting.  Jennifer Jordan, GLOBE Trainer and science specialist at the Education Service Center, Region 13 in Austin, Texas led the presentation and provided hands-on activities.  The participants were introduced to three of the domains-atmosphere, soils and hydrology.  They participated in activities from each domain.

Jennifer began by introducing the atmospheric domain. The participants took part in a cloud cover exercise in the classroom and then went out doors to observe the sky and use their new skills.  It was an enlightening, albeit wet, exercise due to the rain.

The second domain focused on hydrology.  Each group of participants focused on an activity called Water Detectives.  It is a wonderful activity where they participants had to use their senses to determine what each clear liquid was.

In the last domain, soils, Jennifer had the participants look at different types of soil.  They conducted an activity called Just Passing Through.  Participants made predictions about which soil would have the water pass through the fastest and which would retain the most water. Many were surprised with the results.

Jennifer did such a fantastic job with her presentation that many of the informal educators requested a Trainer of Trainer workshop this summer.  As soon as dates are determined, the Texas Regional Collaboratives GLOBE Partnership will provide the training. 

You are invited to view all the images of this event in the album, TEEAC GLOBE 01/07, located within the Texas GLOBE gallery.

TEEAC is sponsored by The Texas Education Agency.  If you would like more information please contact:

Irene Pickhardt; Texas Education Agency; 1701 N. Congress; Austin, TX 78701; 512463-9566; [email protected] Irene Pickhardt