Students Use Data from Space
Students Use PASCO Probes to Analyze NASA Data

Laura Curtis is a curriculum writer for the Center for Educational Technologies (CET) in Wheeling, WV. CET manages NASA-funded projects as well as projects funded through the National Science Foundation and other organizations. Most of the projects CET produces are Web-based, allowing teachers from all over the country to access them. CET also conducts teacher workshops to show teachers how to run the activities and invites students to test materials.

The students seemed to get the concept of the activity quickly and they didn't seem intimidated by using the probes -- which I think is important. I think the PASCO stuff is very approachable for a student, the way it's designed . . ." -- Laura Curtis

Recently, Curtis created a curriculum module focused on marine food chains. Funded by NASA, the 15-unit course is called "From Ponds to Oceans: The Cradle of Life." The module relates life science, physical science and engineering to the research occurring on the International Space Station (ISS) and is geared toward middle school students. The module teaches life science content standard C, which includes an understanding of populations and ecosystems. The series of lab and field activities and computer simulations were specifically designed to attract more females into science-related occupations.

"In all of our NASA-related modules, we look for actual NASA research so that the students are working on a real-life problem with an actual NASA data set," said Curtis. "The problem that students will be working on in 'From Ponds to Oceans: The Cradle of Life' is the effect of marine algae and food chains on global warming. They will study carbon cycles and use NASA satellite data and also use the International Space Station EarthKam."

EarthKam is a camera that's been placed in the International Space Station to take photographs of the Earth's atmosphere. EarthKam supplies pictures to researchers and classrooms. The researchers and classrooms can then incorporate the photos into their research. There are "open spots" on the EarthKam, which allow students participating in From Ponds to Oceans to direct the EarthKam to take pictures of algae blooms in the ocean. They will also track whales and tuna and keep an online journal of their observations.

Back in the laboratory, students will use PASCO probes to study carbon cycles in bottle pond ecosystems. The ecosystems contain pond mud, pond water and an atmospheric chamber sealed with a rubber stopper. For each experimental run, a PASCO Dissolved Oxygen (PS-2108) probe will be submerged in the pond water and an atmospheric CO₂ (PS-2110) probe will be inserted into the atmospheric chamber. Curtis uses recycled two-liter soft drink bottles and drills holes in them to fit the PASCO atmospheric probe. The students will then use the probes to measure the carbon in the water and in the atmosphere to see if they can tell which kinds of algae "pull" the most CO₂ out of the air.

"The kids will use the atmospheric and dissolved CO₂ probes over a time period to see how the levels of CO₂ change with photosynthesis," said Curtis. "The NASA question that's tied in with this investigation is 'How does carbon cycle through a food chain? How does it go from atmospheric CO₂ to being incorporated into plants and animals?'"

Students are then asked to explain the concept of carbon cycling to each other to prove they understand it and how it relates to global warming.

Curtis recently had several female students come to her classroom to participate in a 24-hour carbon cycling experiment.

"The students seemed to get the concept of the activity quickly and they didn't seem intimidated by using the probes -- which I think is important. I think the PASCO stuff is very approachable for a student, the way it's designed -- everything from the color to the shape to its simplicity as far as what kind of information it displays -- all factor in."

CET will soon test the "From Ponds to Oceans: The Cradle of Life" activities with additional classes and examine test scores from national tests to verify that the activities are teaching to the standards.

The next activity Curtis is creating and testing involves analyzing Pacific Humpback Whale songs with a PASCO Sound Sensor.

For more information on CET go to www.cet.edu.