You Be the Scientist
with Satellite Imagery in EZ/EC Communities

You Be The Scientist With Satellite Imagery in EZ/EC Communities is designed as a student enrichment project for 6 targeted middle schools located in the economic empowerment zone communities of Portsmouth, Virginia and Halifax, North Carolina. The student enrichment component is designed to support extra curricular science activities structured to maximize awareness of and utilization of GOES satellite data to meet core Earth Science learning objectives and to develop marketable skills in the area of computer technology.

The goals of the YBTS with Satellite Imagery in EZ/EC Communities program include:
1) Providing teachers and students with an understanding of satellite imagery concepts; 2)Sharing with students information on careers critical to NASA's overall mission; and 3) Sharing with students and educators information related to NASA's earth science enterprise.

Implementing this project is Elizabeth City State University, at which the MU-SPIN Office of Goddard Space Flight Center has established a Network Resources and Training Site. ECSU brings satellite imagery to middle schools in its region in an effort to enhance the study of mathematics and science by underrepresented minority student.
The program is designed to aggressively strengthen the current Earth System Science outreach to EZ/EC middle schools by GSFC and the ECSU-NRTS.
The visualization (Satellite Imagery) project has several components each of which enhance the student's understanding of fundamental remote sensing concepts. These include :
Air Masses of the Earth Atmospheric Absorption
Cloud types and movement Cloud height and temperature
Cold Fronts The Coriolis Effect
The Diurnal Cycle Fire Detection
The Gulf Stream High Level Clouds
The Jet Stream Intertropical Convergence Zone

The YBTS Program is supported by a GVAR Satellite SuperFeed Server in each school. The GVAR server combines data from different satellite types as well as satellite-derived products from various government agencies into a real-time data feed. This feed is sent from a commercial Direct Broadcast satellite and received using a small dish antenna. This service provides the equivalent of 7 gigabytes per day of data to subscribers. This data consists of satellite imagery primarily from the GOES Meteorological satellites as well as selected imagery from other environmental and meteorological satellites. Also available through the GVAR server are derived meteorological products from NOAA and imagery taken from NASA's space telescope and earth-observing satellites. GVAR provides a very content rich data stream consisting of both images and raw image data that can be processed to bring out desired features and analyzed in a scientific fashion. The data is received and distributed throughout the school using a Satellite SuperFeed Server (SSS). The SSS is an intranet appliance that consists a 21" dish antenna mounted on the school roof.

Each of the six teams consists of a minimum of 5 students and one teacher. Teams meet weekly with the teacher who serves as coordinator. With the assistance of the program webmaster they also devote time to entering results of their research on the team web page.

The YBTS program is visited by the YBTS Program Manager (mentor) five times each year in September, November, January, March and May. Each visit is an "event" which allows student teams to showcase results of their weekly activities. The visit also facilitates communication between the teacher coordinator and the Program Manager. At each visit the Program Manager provides information to the schools on satellite technology, the SuperLooper Interface and a variety of careers available in research, data analysis, applications, etc. Refreshments follow the team's oral reports, teacher coordinator written report and Program Manager's presentation.
The Program Manager confers regularly with teacher coordinator on network access and satellite systems usage issues. More frequent contact is possible since Program Manager will provide on-line email assistance to the teacher coordinator. The teacher coordinator and students construct their own home page on the World Wide Web. Teams are encouraged to add hot links to NASA Earth Science educational resource sites; include photos of students and teacher coordinator; include school description data; visualization images created from satellite data and career resources.