Crestview kids keep an eye toward the sky

COLUMBIANA — Six pupils at Crestview Elementary are keeping a watchful eye on the sky, reporting what they see to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The children in Crestview’s Excel program are participating in a worldwide NASA research project on the Earth’s climate.

The program, called Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL), is a real, hands-on science project in which the pupils are required to call on their science, geography and math skills to observe, compute and locate information through ground observation for the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments used by NASA.

CERES Instruments are remote sensing equipment on three different satellites orbiting the Earth that allow scientists to better understand clouds and their effects on climate. They collect measurements of reflected solar energy and emitted heat as the satellites orbit the Earth.

Crestview is the only school in the region participating in the project, according to S’COOL officials.

For more, read Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com