Using Remote Sensing to Enhance Science Education in West Virginia Middle Schools

Michael Ferber, Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University, MFerber@geo.wvu.edu

Twice in this new millennium devastating flood waters created federally declared disasters in McDowell County, WV, with significant qualitative and quantitative destruction. On the heals of the May 2002 flood, middle school students in War, WV, in conjunction with TIGERS fellows from West Virginia University, began a project to document the history, causes, and mitigation against floods using an internet-based flood atlas. Funded through an NSF K-12 grant, the TIGERS (Teams of Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellows Engaged to Reinvigorate Students) program of West Virginia University seeks to empower middle school teachers and students with cutting edge research and technology. The Flood Atlas Project is a continuation of the Community Atlas Project, started in 2001 under the auspices of the TIGERS program, to help middle school students research their community and develop a web site to record their findings. Students primarily contribute to the flood atlas through correspondence and interviews with flood victims and emergency response workers, and local library and media research. TIGERS fellows provide a web-based learning environment where students also contribute to the atlas through internet-based interactive maps and remotely sensed data map servers. Hence, teachers and students are initiated into GIS and Remote Sensing technology as they participate in projects geared toward human and physical geography.