Project: Atmospheric Sciences at the School
Project: Atmospheric Sciences at the School
Group: Renato Ramos da Silva (coordinator); Profa. Marina Hirota; Prof. Reinaldo Haas; Prof. Wendell Farias; Students: Beatriz Campanharo Garcia Carneiro; Natacha Pires Ramos; Jhonny Guarda.
Period of execution: 01 March de 2024 to 31 de December 2024.
ABSTRACT: This project aims to take the topic of Atmospheric Sciences to the schools. Didactic activities developed to disseminate the scientific basis developed in the fields of Meteorology, Climate and Atmospheric Physics at UFSC; present the state-of-the-art of knowledge in these areaa; and encourage curiosity about the earth system’s environmental issues; promote participation in the NASA Globe international project that integrates schools and citizens from all over the planet. In addition to visits to schools, short training courses will be prepared and teaching materials will be made available through an online channel. The project allows for an important integration of UFSC with the community, mainly through its schools.
INTRODUCTION
Weather and climate events are constantly changing and can affect people’s daily lives. The physical processes of the atmosphere constantly attract scientific curiosity and therefore, improving the understanding of these processes is fundamental for society.
Several scientific dissemination programs have been developed to bring knowledge to schools. One of these programs is the Globe project (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) organized by NASA (Globe, 2021). This global program aims to support scientific dissemination initiatives developed by teachers and schools around the world through the availability of various teaching materials and activities that can be developed in classrooms for students of various ages (Amos et al., 2020) .
The Globe program organizes various global measurement campaigns that include for example: photographic images of clouds, tree top heights, and atmospheric data. These measurements require specific training and protocols to perform such atmospheric measurements. These trainings improve knowledge of the Earth system in topics such as the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere and the pedosphere. After the training, school teachers will be able to assist students in the activity of collecting observations and feeding the global project database. Most of these observations can be made via special apps (App observer) that can be installed via cell phones (Weaver et al., 2019).
For example, cell phone photographs of weather conditions (e.g. clouds, smoke, rain, etc.) can be taken simultaneously with passing weather satellites. These images taken with the cell phone are then compared with satellite images, thus allowing the characterization and interpretation of physical processes in the atmosphere (Collon et al., 2020; Hayden et al., 2019). The main NASA satellites that are part of this project are described in Table 01.
In another example, the application developed by NASA (Globe) allows to calculate the height of trees. With these data it is possible to evaluate and compare these heights with measurements made by the ICESat satellite (Campbell, 2021). This satellite has a (laser) on board and as it passes it emits and receives photons back, thus allowing to estimate the surface height. The satellite estimates height of glaciers, lakes, ocean surface and forest height. The images obtained on the ground of the height of trees with the mobile application then allow comparison with data estimated by the ICESat satellite.
Table1 – NASA satellites from the Globe program.
Atmospheric transport of water vapor is of great importance for the distribution of rainfall in South America. An important phenomenon is the Atmospheric Rivers that transport moisture from the Amazon region to the south and can influence atmospheric phenomena (Ramos-da- Silva, 2020). Recently, precipitable water measurements from low-cost infrared thermometers have been shown to be effective in this estimate (Ramos-da-Silva et al., 2021). This type of measurement can be made by students of different ages, thus allowing for important learning about this phenomenon of great importance to the South America.
Schools are an important link with society because in these environments the basis of scientific curiosity is formed. Therefore, this project will be able to provide important support in the dissemination of scientific knowledge in these educational environments.
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of this project involve promoting scientific dissemination activities of processes involving atmospheric physics, climate and meteorology in secondary and elementary schools.
Specific objectives
- Promote scientific dissemination in the areas of meteorology, climate and atmospheric physics in schools;
- Develop teaching methods and kits to be presented in schools;
- Publicize the Physics and Meteorology courses and the science involved;
- Promote activities of NASA’s Globe International Project;
- Promote activities that allow atmospheric measurements made by students at various stages of learning;
- Promote activities that may be part of the curriculum of extension activities in Meteorology and Physics courses.
METHODOLOGY
The project will be developed through the preparation of teaching material, lectures and visits to schools with support from the Laboratory of Climate and Meteorology of the Department of Physics at UFSC.
Teaching materials provided by NASA’s Globe project will be adapted to the Brazilian reality and will be proposed to be developed in schools.
Teacher training protocols will be developed to allow for the integration of these teachers and their schools into the Globe project programs.
Scientific kits in the area of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences will be developed to be presented.
Sporadic visits will be made to schools in order to promote the integration of UFSC with the community.
Classroom activities with low-cost instruments will be developed with the cooperation of UFSC members and school students and teachers.
An online dissemination channel will be developed to allow better integration with schools and the community in general.
TARGET PUBLIC ANC COMUNITY IMPACTS
In addition to the participation of members of the UFSC community as professors and students, we will also have the opportunity to disseminate the concepts of physics, meteorology and atmospheric sciences in schools and to the community in general.
RECENT ACTIVITIES
Short course hibrid. “Ciências Atmosféricas na Escola”
Bibliographycal references
Amos, H. M., Starke, M. J., Rogerson, T. M., Colón Robles, M., Andersen, T., Boger, R., et al., (2020). GLOBE Observer Data: 2016–2019. Earth and Space Science, 7, e2020EA001175. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001175.
Campbell, B., (2021). ICESat-2 and the Trees Around the GLOBE student research campaign: Looking at Earth’s tree height, one tree at a time. Acta Astronautica, 182, 203-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.02.002.
Colón Robles, M., Amos, H. M., Dodson, J. B., Bouwman, J., Rogerson, T. M., Bombosch, A., Farmer, L., Burdick, A., Taylor, J. E. & Chambers, L.H., (2020). Clouds around the world: How a simple data challenge became a worldwide success. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0295.1.
Globe, https://www.globe.gov/ 2021, acessado em 07 de setembro de 2021.
Hayden, L., Taylor, J., and Colon Robles, M., (2019). GLOBE: Connecting a Community of Observers Directly to NASA Satellites. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, 7(1), 98-99. DOI: 10.1109/MGRS.2019.2891930.
Ramos-da-Silva, R. Catastrophic Impact of an Atmospheric River on southern Brazil. In: International Atmospheric Rivers Conference (IARC), 2020, San Diego. International Atmospheric Rivers Conference (IARC), 2020.
Ramos-da-Silva, R., Crema J. Z., Machado, R. Estimativas da Água Precipitável Atmosférica a Partir de um Termômetro de Infra-vermelho. In Física: o universo e os fenômenos naturais / Organizador Edson Ribeiro de Britto de Almeida Junior. – Ponta Grossa – PR: Atena, (2021), ISBN 978-65-5706-903-5, DOI 10.22533/at.ed.035211903 .
Weaver, K., Davis A., and Giddens, J., (2019). Can an App Change How You See the World? GLOBE Observer for Interpreters. Legacy: The Magazine of the National Association for Interpretation, vol. 30, no. 5, September/October 2019, pp. 20-23.
