Laptop mapping-Educators to bring NASA technology into the classroom

By Friday afternoon, 30 Montana grade school teachers will have mastered the streets of Baghdad from the comfort of Missoula.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

At a two-day technology seminar at the University of Montana, teachers are learning how to navigate new software programs and satellite imagery to bring the world closer to home.

The course began Thursday, but by the time the teachers’ academic journey concludes, they will have learned intimate details of Iraq, and how to use the fancy computer mapping programs and remote-sensor imagery capabilities in their classrooms.

What the educators are learning literally falls into the category of "rocket science," because the information they are using is gathered from two NASA satellites, the Landsat 7 and the Terra satellite.

The event is part of the ongoing efforts of UM’s Earth Observing System education project through the School of Education, which is funded through a NASA grant.

A primary goal of the program is to develop Earth education development across local, regional and global boundaries for students kindergarten through college, said Matthew Taylor, an organizer of the event and outreach specialist at UM’s School of Education.

To make its mission more successful, EOS purchased a statewide license for the sophisticated software, and for Montana educators, it means using the technology is free.

Thanks to the program, and the continuing support of Montana’s congressional delegation, which continues to lobby for the grant that funds it, Montana students now have the opportunity to learn state-of-the-art technology and develop skills that will ultimately make them more competitive in school and in the marketplace, Taylor said.

"The tools are really effective and innovative ways for students to learn about geopolitical events in the world," he said. "And they are also a good way to learn more about our own local areas and the issues that are important to Montana."

A classroom in Trout Creek, for example, will be able to access a map of Iraq and figure out potential targets of the country’s missiles, which are limited to ranges of 93 miles or less by U.N. sanctions.

They also will be able to use the same software to look at Montana’s population density and predict future growth trends that will impact forests and rivers.

"What happens is that students have a much more real understanding of issues," said Jeffrey Crews, assistant director of the EOS program. "All we need to do now is train our educators how to use it."

What intrigues many of the educators is that each child will have the ability to create very personalized and specialized maps of their own, said Bud Gaiser, an outdoor educator at Swan River School in Bigfork.

"We are so excited to have this opportunity to learn this technology – it’s just fantastic," Gaiser said while having his 11-year-old son, Jerry, walk him through parts of the software.

Gaiser said he hopes to use the technology to teach kids how to chart the school’s favorite hikes, which can’t be found on most over-the-counter maps.

He’d also like to use the resource to help restore blister-resistant white pine trees to the Swan Valley. Over the decades, the area’s once prolific stands of beautiful pine trees have dwindled with disease.

"I’d like to use this technology with the students to find and map where the hardy trees are – where they have withstood the disease – so that we can go and collect cones and supply nurseries," Gaiser said.

But before grander missions can be launched, he’ll have to first get more lessons from his son.

"This is really fun to use," Jerry Gaiser said. "But I have had to explain some things to my dad a couple of times."

To which Bud Gaiser responded: "Our school is thinking ahead by bringing some of our fifth-graders. They’ll be there for a few years yet – long enough to help their friends understand this and teach us older folks how to do it."

For more information about the technology or upcoming programs, call Taylor at 243-5367.

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at [email protected].

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