WELCOME TO

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WELCOME TO
Roberto Sepulveda Susan Moore Education
Consultants
Dr. Lin Chambers Director of SCOOL
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What does SCOOL stand for?
Mention the use of acronyms and what they are.
Many kids don't know what NASA stands for...you
may want to offer a small prize if anyone does
come up with the complete name, which is on the
next slide.
S tudents
C loud
O bservations
O n-
L ine
Project where students interact with
N A S A
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Where is S'COOL in NASA?
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Who is submitting SCOOL observations?
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Introduce SCOOL as a science project (many
children will not be too excited but they do
understand the scientific method if they have
conducted science projects themselves) and tell
them that NASA has a project whose experiment is
called CERES. When you break up the acronym you
can explain the fact that this experiment studies
clouds and radiation.
NASA has a science project also!
The name of this science experiment is
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The CERES Experiment
Every experiment must have a good problem
statement. This is a slide that shows our
scientific question.

• Question
• What is the Effect of Clouds on the Earths
  Climate?

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Ask the students what they think of helping NASA
with its science projectthey probably will say
So What! Thats OK! Every worthwhile
experiment has to start with a valid reason to do
the project so in essence this is a great
question posed by the students. Show them the
globe picture and have them realize that the
Earth is covered with at least 50 clouds on any
given day and that some scientists believe that
is actually 60. So obviously, the study of
clouds is important to everyone living on this
planet including them.
So What
?
is so important about a few Clouds in the Sky?
?
Global Cloud Cover 50-70
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Note that there are two major cloud levels in
question. High and low clouds behave differently
when it comes to radiation effects. High clouds
are ice clouds that actually work to warm the
planet two-fold do not block solar radiation
(yellow arrow)and do not allow heat (red arrow)
to escape back into space. The low level
clouds do block solar radiation and do allow
about half of the heat emitted by the Earths
surface to escape back into space. Thus high
clouds heat up the Earth (even though they are
made of cold ice crystals) and low clouds cool
down the Earths climate.
How do clouds transmit and/or reflect radiation?
__________ Do clouds cool down or heat up the
Earths climate?
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Many kids feel that NASA doesnt need their input
since they have so many million dollar satellites
gathering information already. They are
wrongsee slide 14 for reasoning. The image on
the right is the two CERES instruments located on
the spacecraft (satellite). Note that one of
them sits on a lazy Susan type device and spans
360 degrees. They are each the size of a
overhead projector and the satellite is the size
of a school busjust for perspective. Make sure
to stress the difference between the satellite
and the instruments (which can be several on one
satellite).
How do we monitor the Earths Energy Budget?
The CERES instruments are remote sensors that
measure the solar reflected and Earth emitted
radiation.
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Remote Sensing
I often use an example to get the point of remote
sensing across. I tell them that if there was
load music (choose an artist that they listen to
regularly) coming from outside the classroom door
you would be upset that children were playing a
radio while you were trying to teach. You decide
to send a student outside to tell the kids to
shut the music off. The student you sent outside
doesnt return. You then go outside to find out
what is going on to realize that the artist was
actually outside your door singing and your
student joined her/him on stage and was dancing
with the artist. Explanation Since you werent
there in person you sensed something remotely
(from a distancelike a remote control for a TV)
and came up with a wrong conclusion. Sometimes
our satellites make the same type of mistakes.
Ask them now to tell you how much cloud cover
they see in the picture to the right (most will
say about 60). The picture on the left shows
the footprint (view area for data collection)
of the satellite instruments. After they have
their guess go to the next slide.

• Remote sensing has been defined as "a
  technique used
• to gather information about an object or an
  area without actually touching it. Our eyes,
  ears, and skin, as well as more sophisticated
• 
  instruments, all aid us in remote
• 
  sensing.

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Satellite View of Clouds
They were wrong. Thanks to the observations
pictures sent in by some students in the area, we
know that there was only about 5-10 cloud cover.
The satellite perceived the snow and ice as
clouds from its remote distance. Thus the need
for students worldwide to help NASA in its
research/project.
What the Students Observe
" GROUND TRUTH "
What else did the students report seeing?
Mountains with snow ice
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This shows what we need the students to observe.
Allow them to think that it is too much. All of
this has to be done at the same time as the
satellite is passing overhead too. Sometimes
kids think this is too much to do. So now lets
break it down for them into manageable pieces.
What to Observe
CIRRUS
CUMULUS
Cloud Types and Levels
Cloud Cover
(Percentage)
Visual Opacity
(How much light penetrates the cloud)
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This shows what we need the students to observe.
Allow them to think that it is too much. All of
this has to be done at the same time as the
satellite is passing overhead too. Sometimes
kids think this is too much to do. So now lets
break it down for them into manageable pieces.
When to Observe
/- 15 minutes from satellite overpass
Universal Time
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Do you have any CLOUD EXPERIENCE?
All students at some point in their lives have
observed clouds thus experienced!
Well, I have looked at clouds in the sky since I
was a little kid. One time I saw a cloud that
looked like.
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Any other experience with clouds?
All students have actually physically experienced
a cloudthus they can come up with the
ingredients if they picture themselves in a
cloudnext slide.
I cant think of any, Im in a FOG. Thats it!
Yes, Ive been in a CLOUD. Ive walked through
FOG (a cloud formed near the ground)
Lets get out of this fog and move into clearer
visibility.
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Necessary Ingredients
Fog feels moist (thus water). Fog is typically
cool (thus cooler temperature). Like a cold
water bottle taken outside on a warm day, the
water vapor needs to condense onto a surface (the
plastic on the water bottle) which we call
aerosols (sea salt, soot from jet exhaustpoint
out that contrails therefore are also clouds).
?
WATER (vapor)
CHANGE IN TEMPERATURE (cooler)
CONDENSATION NUCLEI (aerosols)
Hygroscopic nuclei consist of particles such as
sea salt which have an affinity (attraction) for
water. Water vapor condenses on these particles.
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Point out the SCOOL cloud poster and how it has
the different cloud types split by level. Go
over some of their names. Let students know that
they can have their own personal cloud chart for
their notebooks by going to the following
site http//asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/PDF/Cloud
_ID.pdf Which can be found under new Teacher
Resource products.
Cloud Types
POSTER
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Just over 200 years ago (in 1803), Luke Howard
used Latin words to name the cloud types.
Cumulus means pile and describes heaped, lumpy
clouds
Cirrus means hair and describes wispy looking
clouds. This term is also used to
describe high level clouds
Stratus means layer and describes clouds that
form in sheets and do not have
any unique features
Cumulus means pile and describes heaped, lumpy
clouds Cirrus means hair and describes wispy
looking clouds. This term is also
used to describe high level clouds Stratus
means layer and describes clouds that form in
sheets and do not have any unique
features
Nimbus means cloud and describes low grey rain
clouds
Alto describes mid level clouds
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus - layered
Special Cloud Terms
Nimbus means rain and describes low grey rain
clouds
Alto describes mid level clouds
Contrails short for condensation trails are
the only man-made cloud
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Cirrocumulus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Stratocumulus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Nimbostratus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Altocumulus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Altostratus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Cirrostratus
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Cumulus lumpy Cirrus wispy
Stratus layered Nimbus raining
Alto mid-level Contrails - streaks
Name Combinations
Cumulonimbus
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Tell students that you will be removing some
clouds from this picture. Since we are working
with 100 clouds we can now say that we are
removing a certain percentage of clouds.
Cloud Cover
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
Imagine this picture represents a certain
number of clouds in the sky !
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
100
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Ask them to guess put move on to next slide in 5
seconds. Reason for this is that the satellite
doesnt stay over head for very longas a matter
a fact it orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes.
Thats fast! Also, clouds dont stay still for
you either.
How Many Clouds?
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Let students have a few seconds to write down
their answer and re-explain what they are
quessing.
What is your answer ?
Write your guess down and hold it up high.
Print Large !
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If you do not perform the activity then you may
use this as an example. They will probably come
up with 66 as the answer from the graph but let
them realize that the best fit line doesnt mean
that it is correct.
CLOUD COVER GUESSES
85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35
GUESS
Draw a best fit line graph
Let's practice some graphing skills !
A good Title !
PARTICIPANT
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Note that they can also make a bar graph that
changes the guess to the IV since now we are
interested in how many students guessed the same
answer. They can also perform this activity and
you can stress the difference btw. IV and DV once
again. Have them realize that the most popular
answer is not the correct one either. You can
use these graphs to come up with good lead-in
questions.
HOW ABOUT A BAR GRAPH !
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5
4 3 2 1

• 40 45 50
  55 60 65
  70 75 80 85

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Results from Guess the Cloud
This is a bar graph NASA produced with the help
of a few hundred participants. Note the
importance of repeat trials which gets one closer
to the actual answer.

Total Guesses 726 Average Guess ?
66.4
Not So Fast !
Correct Answer ?
68
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Opaque
What is Visual Opacity?
Imagine that you are looking through a window.
Notice the dark grey patches on the cloudslack
of light.
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Translucent
Note the silhouette of the sunthere is some
light penetrating through the cloud cover.
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Transparent
Note the clear outline seen of the sun despite
the cloud cover.
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You can use this slide to go over the form and
how to fill it in.
Observation Report Form for use in
the field.
Once inside, students can log on to SCOOL
database to enter their observations.
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LETS OBSERVE!
You can hand out observation forms and have the
students do this picture as their first trial
observation. They may have different opinions
but stress that the results that will be sent to
NASA will be the most popular answer(s) chosen as
a class.
Lets make an observation on what we see on this
beautiful day!
What cloud types are present?
Whats the percentage of cloud cover?
How much light penetrates the clouds?
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Can you think of a name for this cloud before I
keep going and going and going ?
Have the guess the name of this cloud. Note many
kids dont read the hint and thus get it wrong.
Stress the importance of reading before yelling
out an answer. You may want to up the challenge
by offering a little gift for the first person to
raise their hand and give the correct answer.
You will find that the first people will not read
the hint and thus get a different answer. You
may want to stress that you want them to come up
with a name for the cloud!
Name this cloud !
Do you have any
Questions ?
"Energizer Bunny" Cloud