Monitoring Earth Vital Signs

NASA has come to represent generations of excitement about space exploration and rightly so. What is less known about NASA is its unique position to lead the study of our own planet. By making Earth-observation data and resources accessible to the scientific and education communities, NASA contributes to our understanding of important global challenges such as food and water security, natural disasters, and global climate change.

NASA utilizes satellite imagery and remote sensing technologies to observe and study Earth. With its unique access to Earth data, NASA has developed many educational resources to share with educators, students and the general public. These resources can be integrated in any STEM classroom to bring relevancy to content for meaningful learning experiences. NASA’s Eyes (which includes Eyes on Earth) can illustrate different mathematical representations that attaches meaning to words (see Eyes on the Solar System video). The NASA Global Climate Change web site provides several resources for students and educators related to this topic. These resources include articles, lesson plans and data sets among others. My NASA Data is another great resource for educators with a search tool by NGSS standard, CORE Ideas or topic. It offers data sets with Earth systems lesson plans.

Just like the resources mentioned above there are many other NASA resources with great earth visualization tools for educators. Integrating these resources into the classroom do not require educators to invest in extensive training or software. These open source resources are also a great way for family members to engage in extension activities with their students at home.

Dr. Laura Rodríguez Amaya and Susan Kohler

Laura Rodríguez Amaya, Ph.D.
Research Faculty
Texas State University

Susan Kohler
Educator Professional Development Specialist, NASA STEM EPDC
NASA Glenn Research Center