Pupils keep eye on sky for NASA

The pupils spend 40
minutes each school day making their observations.

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.

Teacher Susan Kershner said a $500 First Energy grant made that participation possible by providing money for resource material, and the children have been involved in the project for the past six weeks.

They are excited about their involvement, Kershner said, noting that it enables them to apply their knowledge in an authentic research study.

They first researched and learned to identify 12 cloud types and the weather that accompanies each type. They are required to make their observations at the same time each day as one of the NASA satellites passes overhead, determining cloud type, cloud height, cloud cover and cloud thickness as well as surface conditions.

They spend 40 minutes each school day collecting that data, and the information is then sent to the S’COOL Web site for scientists to use to verify what the satellite reports it is seeing.

It’s a worldwide effort, with 2,432 schools from 73 countries taking part.

The Crestview portion of the project is part of a study unit involving climate change developed by Kershner, Tom Watson and Lynn Hill. Kershner will make a presentation on the study unit at the Ohio e-Tech technology conference in Columbus next Tuesday.

The cloud observations will continue until Earth Day on April 22. The children will present an in-school demonstration of their work on that date.