|
Yes,
remote sensing is getting easier. With that, it
is also more enjoyable and more interesting and
easier to be more investigative. The highlight
this week was being able to locate an area by
county or city. Again, I was not aware that such
a tool existed. By going to Merrick County where
I grew up, I was able to learn more about remote
sensing. In that area, I am intimately familiar
with the landmarks. The Platte River was
obvious, and since my parent's farm was on the
river, I found even the little white dot, which
was our farmhouse. Of course, the roads are
highly visible, especially since the sections
are very definite in this part of Nebraska. The
cities are small and the farmland expansive.
Central City was highly visible (where I went to
high school), as was Chapman where I went to
church, as was Highway 30. I found my father's
fields, my brother's farm, and his popcorn
plant. I could even find the corner where the
"one-room" schoolhouse sat where I attended
Grades K-8.
Expanding
on this I began to think of how remote sensing
could be applied to my present classroom and my
project ideas. Perhaps remote sensing would be
available to look at some farm and field sites
that could be used to provide some Problem Based
Learning. Looking at some pivot sites could make
a realistic picture in the minds of the students
for some actual problem solving. Perhaps it
would set the stage for some problems based on
precision agriculture if they could see the
actual fields on which they would be doing
calculations. Knowing that fertilizer
applications can be refined to vary over even a
small field seen by remote sensing would be
fascinating. GPS devices continue to be real
assets to many areas of business.
Other observations I made this week about remote
sensing were how geometric rectifcation
resembles geometric translation. This would be a
practical application of what we teach so
diligently in geometry. Under NIH images I
learned it could be used to measure area, mean,
centroid, perimeter etc. of regions. Also, it
could be applied to measuring path lengths and
angles.
|
|