Eduspace, a multi-lingual Earth Observation Webportal for Teaching and Learning
- Paper number
IAC-06-E1.4.03
- Author
Ms. Laurence Ghaye, European Space Agency/ESRIN, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Maurizio Fea, European Space Agency/ESRIN, Italy
- Year
2006
- Abstract
EDUSPACE is a multi-lingual Earth Observation webportal for secondary schools and lower university courses designed to provide students and teachers with space related learning and teaching tools. The portal is managed by the European Space Agency and is co-sponsored by the European industry. Its aim is to increase the awareness of space technology, especially spaceborne Earth observation, amongst youngsters. This webportal is an entry point to Earth observation data provided by satellites and their applications both for sciences and day-to-day use. It encourages teachers to use such data in their curriculum by providing ready-made material and exercises. Text and examples help teaching and learning about environmental issues observed and monitored by satellites and about methods to retrieve relevant information. In order to allow students to apply these methods to a well-known area, the webportal also includes an image catalogue where they can find the data of their own area of interest. Moreover the webportal is rich in didactical material focusing on remote sensing techniques as well as the physics and computer processing lying behind. The material made available shall appeal to teachers and students from very different disciplines and should encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration. In this view the use of image data from the Earth's surface or its atmosphere is manifold and shall be linked to disciplines such as Chemistry, Physics, Geography, Geology, Environmental Sciences, Computer Sciences or History. Even Arts and Languages can be considered because of the nature of a displayed image and because the portal is edited in six languages. Image enhancement, analysis and interpretation become an attractive task thanks to LEOWorks, a didactical image processing software that is even capable to generate and handle GIS applications. It includes an exhaustive tutorial, offering a rich palette of modules for image manipulation serving both students and experienced teachers. EDUSPACE is conceived for self-study and frontal teaching. The proposed exercises, projects and case studies are of various size, ranging from engaging a class just for few lessons, to research work covering a full school cycle and across different disciplines or to a cross-border inter-school project. EDUSPACE is organised as a tree structure with the following main branches: Europe from Space, Africa from Space, Himalaya from Space, Global change, Disaster Monitoring, Remote Sensing Principles, Image Processing, News, Helpdesk and Links. Web address: www.eduspace.esa.int
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-E1.4.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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