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Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
 Gladfelter Pond, Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
ES 555 Small-Format Aerial Photography
Educational Applications for SFAP:
Learning to fly kites and blimps to photograph an environment as an educational activity
Field Trip Report
By Tamara Korenman
July 1, 2003
Instructor: Dr. James Aber
Teaching environmental issues to students requires significant amount of field work. Small-format aerial photography offers unique view of the site as a whole. Obtaining small-format aerial photography using kites and blimps for educational purposes.
Taking students to a field trip for obtaining visual data using kites and blimps is an effective strategy to teach environmental issues in a variety of social science and science courses in grades 6-12, as well as Earth Science and Geography courses for college students.
In order to include field activities of flying kites and blimps for taking small-format aerial photography in a curriculum, educators should consider special training. To provide effective learning experience for students during such activities, following steps are suggested:
Step 1. Students define their objectives for collecting data from a site. Examples:
*conditions of soil, vegetation
*ecosystem of a pond or stream
*architectural design and structural characteristics of the place
*land use, etc
Step 2. Before the trip, students learn about:
*the site, location and unique characteristics of the place.
*kites and blimps, weather conditions and safety rules
*the compass and weather instruments
*basic photography, cameras, and films
Step 3. During the trip, students keep a journal recording their observation of the site:
* characteristics of a landscape
* conditions of vegetation
* human activities
Step 4. Obtaining small aerial photography data using kites or blimps.
A. If the wind is 10 - 15miles per hour, students fly kites.
They practice their skills in kite operating and taking aerial
photography using remote equipment.
Students change their roles and follow the rules of safety.
B. Of the wind below 10 miles per hour, a helium blimp may be utilized for aerial photography.
Step 5. Students evaluate their field work, process pictures and interpret collected data.
The field work with the purpose of obtaining small-format aerial photography by using kites and blimps was done by students enrolled in ES 555 offered by Earth Science Department at Emporia State University during summer 2003.
The purpose of the field trips for this course was acquiring small-format aerial photography data, methods and different techniques for collecting such data. For this purpose, our group visited several sites. Ross Reservation and Cheyenne Bottoms were among our visited sites.
Our group developed specific objectives for collecting data from each site:
*observing and evaluating the effect of grass burning in the Ross Reservation;
*observing conditions of marshes and wetland vegetation in the Cheyenne Bottoms
during the season of mass precipitation
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Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
Gladfelter Pond, Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
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Overlook of Cheyenne Bottoms Cheyenne Bottoms, June 2003 |
Measuring the wind speed Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
Locating the North arrow by the deck of Gladfelter pond. Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
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Trying a kite Ross Reservation, June 2003 |
Putting the camera rig on the lineRoss Reservation, June 2003
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Radio system to operate rotation, angle of the camera to the ground, and taking a picture |
Trying the system work Ross Reservation, June 2003
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Preparing the blimp Cheyenne Bottoms, June 2003 |
Filling the blimp with helium Cheyenne Bottoms, June 2003
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The blimp is ready to take pictures Cheyenne Bottoms, June 2003 |
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A blimp flies no higher than 500 feet above the ground |
The blimp is up to work |
These are two high-oblique images of Cheyenne Bottoms near Hoisington, KS
acquired in June 2003 by digital camera on helium blimp.
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| Image 1: access road to the Nature Conservancy land. Marsh area is located on the right side of the road. | Image 2: Deception Creek and dead cattails. Most of the area of the cattails were killed during the drought of 2002 |
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These are two near-vertical images of Ross Reservation near Emporia, KS acquired in June 2003 by digital camera on a kite. Both images show bright green vegetation as a result of grass burning in spring of 2003 and then mass rains in May and early June. Brown spots are cedar trees destroyed by the fire during grass burning. |
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Webpage was created by Tamara Korenman, tamarak@bethanylb.edu
June 30, 2003
as an assignment for ES 555, Small-Format Aerial Photography
as a component of Geospatial Analysis Graduate Certification Program
Offered by Earth Science department, Emporia State University
