What
is the focus of this module?
The ETE
"Severe Weather" module is a good place to start because
its focus, the hurricane, is a real-world event that occurs when
the school year begins in late summer and early fall. This module
is also a good introduction to the Internet, remote sensing, collaborative
learning, and problem-based learning.
What
is the compelling problem that students will face in this module?
Your students will
study the action of Hurricane Andrew (1992) in preparation for analyzing,
tracking, and predicting landfall of the next hurricane to hit the
United States this school year.
What
tasks will students encounter as they work through this module?
Few students
are aware of the variables involved in weather-related events or
the magnitude of destruction hurricanes involve. This ETE
module contains background information on hurricanes and prescribes
three major tasks:
1. Tracking
a Hurricane for Practice
2. Working in
groups, students should apply the Problem-Based Learning model to
the problem.
- Make a list of what
they already know about hurricanes.
- Make a list of what
they will need to know about hurricanes in order to predict where
and when the next hurricane will come ashore.
- Make a list of what
they will need to do in order to get the information they need.
3. Building upon
students' experiences tracking Hurricane Andrew and the Remote Sensing
Resources in the module, have them
- Track the course of
the next hurricane.
- Determine the forward
speed of the hurricane
print out this Hurricane
Tracking Sheet and then use
hurricane tracking shareware downloaded from the internet.
(Macintosh users may elect
to use the McHurricane
software, while Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 users may elect to
track using Tracking
The Eye.)
Using image processing
software predict
at least 24 hours in advance where and when this hurricane will
come ashore.
Note:
This activity needs to be scheduled over several days due to the
actual length of time a hurricane runs its course.
How
can one determine precisely when a satellite photo was taken?
Satellites
take many pictures. How do you know you are looking at the most
recent one? How long ago was the picture taken? Most satellite images
have the time written on them, but it is in a form that may be difficult
to read. Here is a guide to finding the time.
As you know, there are
many different time zones around the globe. The one generally used
on satellite images is universal time (U.T.), also known as zulu
time (Z), and Greenwich mean time (GMT). All three refer to the
time in London along the Greenwich Meridian. When a satellite picture
is taken, it is logged according to traditional military notation
for time (that is, the 24-hundred hour notation). So if you see
a picture taken at 0830 U.T., this means it was taken at 8:30 a.m.
universal time.
You can use a chart to
convert a U.T., Z, or GMT time to the zone where you live.To convert
to standard time in North America, subtract the appropriate number
of hours from the chart below. To convert to zones outside North
America, use the U.S. Naval Observatory's World
Time Zones page.
Newfoundland
zone |
3.5
hours |
Atlantic
zone |
4
hours |
Eastern
zone |
5
hours |
Central
zone |
6
hours |
Mountain
zone |
7
hours |
Pacific
zone |
8
hours |
Most
of Alaska |
9
hours |
Hawaii
and Alleutian Islands |
10
hours |
To get
daylight saving time, add one hour to your answer. Thus, if
the satellite image was made Friday at 1500 hours (fifteen hundred
hours) Greenwich mean time, then the time on the East Coast
of the United States was 1000 hours (10 hundred hours). If daylight
saving time was in effect, add one hour.
Preparation
Checklist--have you thought of everything?
|