What we want to do

Create four lesson plans for middle and high school teachers to introduce IR photography, Infragram Sandbox, and environmental monitoring. Please check out lesson 1 and 2 in the wiki

Our Plan

Lesson 1: Plants, geography of Louisiana, and need for wetlands monitoring and IR photography (link to the wiki)

• plant seeds to use in lesson 3 or 4
• possible hands-on activity about storm surges or oil spills/extraction
• possible watershed activity- create model watershed from paper, spray with water
• focus on photosynthesis

Lesson 2: More than meets the eye (the electromagnetic spectrum and how we see light) (link to the wiki)

• possibly make spectrometer
• use colored filter and enclosed box to view items of different colors and learn about how we perceive color
• mixing pigments vs mixing lights: use colored filters and flashlights (or glow sticks) to mix light and discover how it creates different colors
• discuss components of eyes, then view optical illusion (false-colored flag that leaves a negative afterimage of the typical red, white, and blue)

Lesson 3: Basics of Photography

• use cheap webcam and/or camera phone with remote control to see IR (cameras that don't have IR filter)
• Remove IR filter from digital cameras alter white balance
• photograph stressed and unstressed plants (from lesson 1) and view in pseudocolor/false color

Lesson 4: Bringing it all together

• most of class will be devoted to a larger project using modded cameras (specifics to be determined)

Questions and next steps

What should the final project in Lesson 4 be?