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03-018
For Release: April 9, 2003

Sally V. Harrington
Media Relations Office
216/433-2037
Sally.V.Harrington{at}nasa.gov

Earth Week Webcast for Students Across the Country

Hundreds of students in K-12 across the country will participate in
distance-learning programs featuring satellite images of Earth and
information about the tropical rain forests.

On April 11 and 12 two webcasts, originating from the Cleveland
Metroparks Zoo's Adventure Hall in the Education/Administration
Building, will be hosted by NASA Glenn Research Center and the
OhioView Consortium. Scientists from the University of Toledo,
Cleveland State University and Kent State University will interact
with students at the zoo and students sitting in classrooms
throughout the country who preregistered for the webcasts. 

Students will learn about and perform activities related to current
remote sensing research, the tropical rain forest, and how satellite
information is used daily. Zoo facts about the Earth and rain forests
will also be presented. A "Students as Scientists" project in which
students collect and record data on snow, clouds and the Earth's
surface temperatures that will help validate satellite data will also
be highlighted. 

During the 1 p.m. EDT webcast on Friday, April 11, students from
Central Catholic High School in Toledo, Ohio, will be participating
at the zoo. They will interact with the presenters: Dr. Kevin
Czajkowski from the University of Toledo and Dr. Pete Clapham of
Cleveland State University (CSU), who will lead an interactive lesson
utilizing LANDSAT-7 images video-streamed over the Internet.

On Saturday, April 12, at noon EDT, SEMAA (Science, Engineering,
Mathematics and Aerospace Academy) students nationwide in grades K-12
will participate in a similar webcast. During this webcast, SEMAA
students from the Cleveland area will participate at the zoo. Dr.
Mandy Munro-Stasiuk from Kent State University, Janet Struble of the
University of Toledo and Dr. Pete Clapham of CSU will be the
presenters. The SEMAA program provides a greater appreciation for
science, engineering and mathematics to K-12 grade students in a
hands-on, inquiry-based, cooperative learning environment Saturday
mornings during the academic year. 

In both webcasts the students and their teachers will learn how NASA
satellites observe Earth from space and what kind of remote sensing
research is currently being done. Students participating from schools
throughout the United States will be able to e-mail questions in and
the scientists will answer as many questions as possible during the
webcast. 

Note to Editors and News Directors: Media representatives interested
in this program are welcome to observe it at the zoo, at
participating schools or SEMAA sites. To arrange for coverage at a
school or SEMAA site, please contact the school directly. Please
contact Sally Harrington at 216-433-2037 or by e-mail to learn of a
school in your area that is participating. 

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