Welcome to this year's video introducing views to the challenges of mapping and collecting data in systems changing in hard to predict timing.  Covid shutdown has also offered us time to work as individuals, teams and cohorts with tools in our own locations that gain meaning to our knowledge that's hard to generalize.  

During this week's discussion, we invite ideas that extend individual interests to sustained local data collection of phenomenon information over time. 

• Taking this as a given, mapping our local environment is important. What are the priorities of the layers of knowledge as we map our local environment? 
• Are we missing the local community impact of small changes? How are sensors and their analysis able to inform projects to engage campus and community decisions?
• And an age old question, that bears asking again, “How can we improve recognition and value the roles involved as we learn the process to document critical systems?” 

We look forward to reading your experiences working through the year and answering questions regarding our projects.

Hi, I'm Mike Kaspar.  Welcome to our video presentation. I'm a co-presenter but, I am also a volunteer interested in STEM where each subject of STEM is clearly integrated.  Prior to COVID the focus of this STEM project was building content support for sensor integration at Institutions of Higher Education designing a course support and a club type model(s) with classroom data and website content support. 

The difficult and fast-evolving COVID closure models changed that project to one in which local residents would be engaged to assist in data collection during the pandemic.  In our case, we were interested in the similarities and differences between an extreme ice event in Texas and one that occurred earlier in New Hampshire. The project became a multi-generational event of quarantined family members.  The high-schooler grandson figured out the sensor, i-phone, and app connections, the grandfather explained the device and process while the daughter re-explained the device and process to the grandson in a way that he could understand. Data was collected and the next steps would be to analyze that data to build our story around these similar yet different events.

We learned that each individual began with a certain role in mind but that the role changed as the project progressed.  Once every role was more clearly defined, each member learned about the importance of collecting data about one’s environment in a real-to-life situation, especially when all the water pipes had to be replaced. 

 

Hi, Mike!

The full experience of building activities that involve sensors need to ponder the chemistry of group use and meaning to others.  The weather event in Texas saddened and shocked all of us. Hard to be without heat then endure burst pipes, yet the impetus to develop information and apply tools to avoid future damage is a huge leap.  We noticed the data in NH during our annual Nov-January light/temp data collection and were fortunate to have you join to be one of our "southernmost points" for that time period.

Thanks for discussing your family's engagement with the data loggers.  This type of "cohort group" is the most universal to take on projects during this "COVID closure model" and we can learn from more from your description than we'd ever dare to try from sending you a survey!   

The change of roles as individuals find their interests appeared to be the most difficult as students obviously are out to figure that out while also finding their way into what appears to be future growth areas or items that will save time/effort.  They tend not to sustain their interest without someone like you or your daughter to reflect...or to assist their progress with the technology.   Taking on an internship or apprenticeships is a large step from volunteering and hard to arrange during the closure situation.   

The full experience of building activities that involve sensors need to ponder the chemistry of group use and meaning to others.  We had been watching flooding but never could imagine the difficulties that unfolded in Texas.  With more data over seasons and discussions like this we will be able to plan differently for their possible affects.   Should I send down more loggers for summer? 

I certainly hope we can sustain our efforts!  What comes next?  

Thanks for sharing your work. This is a great example of how programs and program goals needed to shift in response to the COVID pandemic. As you move forward into the next phase of your project, do you plan to return to your original project goals? How will you integrate the things you have developed as a result of the COVID detour into those goals? What are the big lessons learned that you will take with you moving forward?

Hi! As a researcher it has been exciting to see the intergenerational participation and role definition in this project and it can be a useful model for others to follow, whether during a pandemic or anytime. Also the project's activities cross a number of states and locations and make it particularly useful for comparisons.

Thank you for sharing this timely and important work. In the video, I saw students of different ages involved in the field experiences and I wonder how you adapt them to different ages. Also, did you evaluate the field experiences or do you have plans to collect data about students' experiences in the future?

Betsy- Nice to see your project video. I would love to reconnect and learn more about your work. How did you go about recruiting the various schools? And where do you see this work going in the next few years?

Perrin Cothran Chick

Hello Sabrina,

Thanks for your suggestion about further evaluation. It would be great to gather data about the students' current experiences with this project's field activities. I was the original evaluator under the MSP umbrella for this project, but that has ended. We can see what we might do to secure appropriate funding and make that happen! :)

Hi Betsy,

We share interests in the NASA AREN Project (and we will touch base later for sure). What a great way to not only introduce the topic of remote sensing, but have students participate in the collection of data. It is hard for students to escape what is now almost daily news/reports i.e. about NASA's plans for the ISS, Moon, and Mars. In addition, we face issues such as climate, energy, sustainability etc., where use of remote sensing data is already an established part of the research. I am sure you have seen not only the excitement, but questions that they come to school with. With these initiatives combined with the every developing network of Earth Observing Satellites, the next generation of STEM professionals will view this type of data and imagery as common place in their toolbox. Continue to "Prepare and Inspire"!

Thank you for sharing this video about your interesting work! I'm curious about the type of data that you may have collected from participants and how you went about doing so. If this wasn't an aspect of this particular project, what kind of data do you think would be feasible and worthwhile to collect?

This is a key question, thank you for asking.  Data and analysis are areas that cause many people concerns, yet understanding how critical having data to structure the narrative and visual is was why I became involved with NASA/AREN as an anchoring project to the use of sensors with a recognized global claim to successful use of data with their missions. Their process of decision making and communication to the public reaches us and involves us in their work. 

 

The kind of data that I started with was aligned with my interests in documentation first with photography but as digital images continue to be less aligned with the light and color we actually experience, I sought sensors to document that element and am researching how the light/temp relationship regulates systems. Obtaining interesting data like under frozen ponds and in wind gusts builds a challenge on how to express the systemic effect of slight changes with solely numbers. 

Gaining perspectives of patterns in our own living sites is engaging to others IF expressed through their interests and with through their senses.  Light and temperature are our first engaging senses and how they apply to the concept of albedo is easily discussed to people who ask about the purpose of flying the Aeropod and extending sensors from that tool to other locations and applications.  Soil moisture is the current challenge.

  Continue to push me to think further about data from the sensors.  Do you work with sensors?  How do you engage others with your research?  

 

 

Hello,
I'd like to add that the data loggers Betsy sent last fall where monitored by the 2 kiddos next door, 4th and 5th grades. The loggers were put in their house, one in a south facing window and the other a north facing window. I just told them that a Scientist friend of mine was doing a study about light and left it at that. I also gave them the bag of candy Betsy had included!
Every once in a while when I would see them getting off the school bus or if they came over when I had a telescope in the driveway we would talk about the data loggers. I never tell them anything other than the loggers collected light data and as we talked I tried to have them lead the discussion as they formed their own ideas.
One take away is that they know a little more about Scientific methods, processes, and maybe even how Scientists do their 'thing', through their involvement in the project.

===(Below is cross-post as I put these comments in a different but related discussion stream. Sorry!)

Betsy asked me to post some comments about the work we have shared over the last few years.
What I am describing is how we combined motion and sound data, visuals, and music into performances under a Planetarium Dome.
I met Betsy, don't remember how, but it was by way of a high-altitude balloon project I was involved with. Betsy sent us data loggers we attached to the payload package. They collected motion data throughout the ascent and descent. We also had cameras as part of the payload for recording pictures and video. While from Betsy's perspective collecting motion, light, and sound data was a high priority our data priority were the visuals. We had two successful flights: one landed 10 miles away, the 2nd one went from the western Kansas City, MO suburbs to almost the Illinois River on the other side of Missouri. I worked with a group of musicians and students from several high schools. Work on the payload and other components was done at a local hobby shop.
What was done with the data collected was made into a full-dome video, Ascent, that was accompanied by a live performance of music written specifically for the video. This led to our being invited to launch a balloon from Kauffman Stadium during an event hosted by a local TV station called "School Day at the K." We launched the balloon equipped with a TV camera for live broadcasts from the balloon. These were displayed periodically on the large screens. One of my columns that year was about the balloon project.

Here is a link to that column:http://currentsky.com/Scope-on-the-skies/2012/nov12-ascent.pdf
This was a collaboration between me, as the Astronomer/graphics editor and a group of musicians. Collectively we called ourselves Dark Matter. The Ascent production was our second collaboration - the first was called Orbit and were several full-dome videos about our solar system accompanied with original music.
Some of the music were space sounds, radio and other instrument sounds, as well as some electronic wizardry during the performance.
Betsy and I co-authored a column about the use of data collectors: Give them the Tools
Here is a link to the Dark Matter videos stored in my cloud:Dark Matter Videos

When we were approached us to be a part of this project, we were already deeply engaged with creating experiences for students that started with building their own sensors and then collecting the data. The work presented here is the natural extension in learning by using the instruments to create data sets from the field for analysis.  This work facilitates the localization and personalization of knowledge and understanding. It creates an experience for the concepts that come from a book in more generalized explanations.

It is one thing to talk about the data expected but to see wind, heat transfer, and movement of air and heat in a space, but to see it illustrated in your own home or your own backyard personalizes it for a student. It drives curiosity about the spaces we are in all the time.

All of us are passionate about STEM - but conveying that can get bogged down in learning and not doing. We have tried with this project and with all of our other work to create more doing that creates learning through the experiences that motivated us the most as STEM professionals and STEM educators that STEM is an action.

We remembered our field experiences, the challenge of "crunching the data" and either confirming something that is understood - or revealing something new about our location or subjects and wanted to share that sense of awe as something was revealed in what we measured. Thank you for watching our work with these amazing students.

Great work by the researchers and interns!

Very detailed explanations from the team! I enjoyed learning from the video; however, it would be nice to hear the students' voiceovers rather than the robots' voiceovers.

Thank you for that suggestion!  One issue we had with the Covid was recordinfocug sound in the field. 

A huge regret is balancing actual student voice with visual requirements on the video length.  The timing of the discussion period also overlaps final spring term papers, exams and grading.  Always an issue with active professors as well as students.  Marilyn Moriarty, author of our initial NSF funded publication, Writing Science through Critical Thinking is always engaged during this time of year and the focus of IHE IT is on campus use, especially during COVID.

We hope to see the students join us before the end tomorrow. 

In the past, I have had students do stream studies and post their data which they compared to other students' data from around the world.  The comparisons brought up lots of questions and they were very involved as they researched their answers. 

I also take trackers with me as I travel.  Going to James Bay in February where the temperature was -40 was an interesting one.  Even more interesting to me was the light.   Somehow I expected there to be a lot less light as I was thinking it was farther north than it was. It is only 51.2731° N.  I'm used to being in much warmer Iceland with a lot less light!  64.1466° N

I also like to put thermal trackers on my motorcycle for cross-continent trips.  Colorado is a great place to show the temperature differences as they relate to height above sea level.   I usually wear an emergency tracker as well just in case.   Once on a trip from Germany to Croatia I got an email from a friend after a day's riding in Austria telling me my tracker was broken.   Not at all!  This one would have been fun for students to try to figure out.  The reason was that I was riding through Austria not on it.   There were miles and miles of long tunnels, sometimes with only at 500 metres between the end of one and the start of the next--not long enough to find a satellite and connect. 

Thank you everyone for your comments!

My name is Molis. I have been working with Betsy since the summer of 2020. Betsy has given me the freedom to conduct my own research in my areas of interest which are water quality and soil moisture. Through the provision of multiple data loggers and soil moisture equipment, I started recording data to see how soil moisture, light intensity, and soil temperature affect the quality of farm soil. Over the summer, I also attended a lot of webinars and online sessions offered by the Department of Energy and learned about ways companies and organizations are efficiently using energy. I also earned the US Green Building Certificate.

Over the period of January Term, I interned for SABEN Group and received the same freedom to conduct my research. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, I got an opportunity to continue my research from the summer. Through effective communications, I was able to send the collected data from Hollins to my internship supervisor.

A lot of students are not getting the full experience of education in this time period because they lack the interactions with their peers and teachers. However, because we are having more time in our hands, I think it is a great opportunity for them to explore their passions such as conducting research or experiments. The lack of equipment is one big hurdle to get over, however, there are a lot of experiments out there that require very simple equipment or none at all. It is up to us to show the new generation the way to experience their potential in the world they live in!

I think freedom is the key word in your post, Molis.  It is wonderful that you experienced that as you did your research.  Agreed, that there is so much that can be done with simple or no equipment.  We may all be surprised by what has been accomplished this past year despite the constraints of the pandemic.

Oh, we will definitely want  to follow and stay in touch with you. Great program!

At the Mobile Climate Science Labs, we too do quite a lot that involves remote sensing. Creating a bridge between current science research and the understanding and keen interest of the public.  You'll see, for instance, how much remote sensing is a video subject on our Youtube channel: Climate Science Demonstrations .   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFObPDn5SR4VR...

We have found that both students and families are fascinated with what can be learned via remote sensing, especially when it is connected with their own experiences.  

Among the satellites we feature and study: GOES, TERRA, Landsat, and the Sentinel series.

Question: How do you all approach this?  I would even say it is a bit of a controversy in the federal agencies.

A very influential school of thought is that students and the general public are not capable of understanding imaging that relates to invisible light -- in particular the different bands of infrared light. Only undergraduate science majors and above can comprehend this science. Based on that assumption, imaging that is shared with the public is almost always limited to those in visible light.

So much of current research and monitoring is actually in the electromagnetic spectrum outside of the invisible light range. This stance does have the effect of keeping people out of getting their own experience in STEM that goes beyond that portion of light that the unaided human eye can see.

Wondering what you all think about this?  Is it best to stay restricted to visible light?  Should students and the public be given opportunities to experience remote sensing of the invisible world that is all around us?  

Thank you for your very important work, and wonderful video!

I think it's important for experiences to move beyond visible light. Students and the public would already have been exposed to this sensing technology through action adventure films. Even if the technology might be fanciful in some respects, it nevertheless opens the door to thinking about different possibilities. And beekeepers would be familiar with their bees'  behavioral responses to non-visible light though they, beekeepers,  might not be able to discuss the theory.

First, I would like to respond to James's question about allowing students and the public to have opportunities to experience remote sensing of the invisible world around us.

 

Absolutely.  Don't hold information back from them, especially the students.  They tend to ask questions that adults don't even consider.

 

Marilyn has an excellent point.  They've already been exposed to sensing technology.  Why use this technology for alien movies?  Allow students to use it for educational purposes. 

 

I've carried data loggers on trips to the Caribbean many times.  I still regret losing that one down at Bonaire several years ago.  I've also carried them around with me here in Tornado Alley.  Fortunately, I've never lost one to a tornado.

 

Enough about me.  Keep the students involved.  Allow them to have ownership.  To borrow an expression from Beck, that's "Where it's at!"

 

 

Students have amazing invisible abilities we can't even guess at.  Never limit them because you think it is above them.   When GIS was a new concept and just starting up at our local university I brought grades 4 & 5 students to the university to see what was happening.  Despite all those "Oh they are too young to understand" reservations at the university, my students were able to follow the process.  Molis mentioned freedom to do her research.  Give your students the freedom to do theirs without artificial boundaries.

Molis,

 Glad you are finishing your exams and have joined the discussion.  Your mention of   Department of Energy’s Better Buildings’ Conference  shows how fast sensors are being integrated into decision making during this COVID year.  Last year’s week of comparative sites tracking energy has changed in a year of air quality (HVAC) systems to the sharing of  how industry is integrating sensors and their visualization of data to improve all aspects of product development and production.

  The early USGBC awards and displays of those “racetracks” of aspects of data are out to public use to design homes and investigate materials.  You are still one step ahead of them as you explore water moving through its states with sensors.  Also in recognizing how the tools do not replace the human experience with the subject being measured.   Today’s panel in that conference expressed the wish that science could explore the “social side” of science to improve public understanding of the benefits of sensor integration.  Your college cohorts first attracted my attention by their immediate drive towards sustainability ..even before the COVID changed our approach to thinking about the activities. 

The application in farming has also been an important step. Our “flyfields” for the kite powered Aeropod were first on historical Shaker lands. I have since worked with our mutual friend Lanetta Ware as she raises and harvest hay and realize that the Shakers placed the fields to use the wind to dry various products.  The positioning of the open space creates pockets of climate that the work that you helped with this year to consider through seasonal data will be a continued interest and our need for interest in “remote sensing” by all. 

Thank you for finding time to venture with us. Your patience and inputs have been not only timely but critical to fill gaps in everyone's  thinking and applications to technology's opportunities. 

James,

 Thanks for viewing our video. The project is a descendant of CLEAN as we joined in many calls over the years and involved the approach of engagement….but from the roots up.  The issue of reaching teachers gaps also was due Harvard’s MOSART testing which demonstrated that average citizens were missing out on topics involving optics and materials…heat transfer and materials redirection of light…also dual variables in graphs. These areas were worse in our science teachers that joined our first federal funding.

Why would that be?  We are rurally located without some of the recent hands out and interactive exhibits not to mention that many of our science teachers are older and items have leaped into their horizon but not to their accepted, day to day lessons.  Your work to place these items are critical as the kids bring these topics forward and as they have been out of school these resources are MORE available to them.

Today, for example the issue of access to this video became “problematic” due to how our areas internet is routed. The kind people at the “contact” tracked that issue.  This also has been another visual issue in that some living in rural locations that viewed or commented here were not shown on the Google map.  What impact might that have on what we learn and how it is available to us? 

The balance of that issue in the past has been the access to experiential learning and natural resources at our constant “doorstep” however fair knowledge of STEM is an issue.  Molis helped me think of the issues in Global context as Covid kept her in the US.  

 As we improve our  resilience the issue of public capacity to understand either through experience or interacting with models..and most likely all of those options for certain topics…will continue to be wrestled to the ground. Data into visual form with narrative in a relevant form is the way we approach STEM Literacy..and using a community of Practice has helped all of us to learn from where we are.

Thanks again for asking great questions. Will continue to ponder them…and build more activities and media to join people into discussions...both work with the right process and timing.  

As we conclude we continue to have issues of posting and reviewing the video.  Please contact me directly either via the email used during the conference (bastefany@gmail.com) or any one of the co-presenters OR ask the STEM for All conference folk!  
Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion and NASA/AREN who has supported outreach of sensor education through this session.

Thanks to all of you for contributing to our learning.  Please connect through me-bastefany@gmail.com