Lesson planning with EarthExplorer

Creating a sensible and engaging lesson using the USGS EarthExplorer platform can help students develop spatial thinking, data literacy, and real-world inquiry skills. EarthExplorer provides access to satellite imagery and remote sensing data, making it an excellent resource for geography, environmental science, Earth science, or even history lessons.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to designing a student-friendly lesson using EarthExplorer:

🎯 Lesson Title: Investigating Land Use Change with Satellite Imagery

Target Group: Secondary students (ages 14–18)
Subjects: Geography, Environmental Science, Earth Science
Skills: Spatial thinking, image interpretation, change detection, inquiry, digital literacy

✅ Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Use USGS EarthExplorer to locate and download satellite images.

• Compare satellite images from different years to identify land use or environmental changes.

• Analyze the causes and consequences of those changes.

• Present their findings in a digital report or presentation.

🧭 Lesson Plan Outline (1–2 lessons)

1. Introduction (15–20 minutes)

• Briefly introduce remote sensing and satellite imagery.

• Show examples of land use changes: urban expansion, deforestation, wetland loss, etc.

• Explain that students will explore real satellite data using EarthExplorer.

2. Tool Tutorial (15–20 minutes)

• Demonstrate the key steps live or with screenshots:

  1. Go to https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

  2. Enter a place name or use the map to mark an area (e.g., their own city or a rainforest).

  3. Choose a date range (e.g., 1990–2020).

  4. Select a dataset: e.g., Landsat (choose Landsat 5 or Landsat 8 for consistent imagery).

  5. Preview images and download them or take screenshots.

  6. Compare two or more images visually.

3. Student Task (30–60 minutes)

Project: Detecting Change Over Time

Students work individually or in pairs to:

• Choose a region of interest (e.g., their city, Amazon forest, coastline).

• Download or screenshot two satellite images (20–30 years apart).

• Identify visible changes (e.g., expansion of urban areas, forest loss, water levels).

• Research possible causes (e.g., population growth, agriculture, climate change).

• Present their findings with:

  • Before/after satellite images.

  • Observations and measurements (e.g., area affected).

  • Explanations of what happened and why.

🛠️ Optional Tools to Support the Task

• Use Google Earth Pro or QGIS if you want to go deeper with geospatial tools.

• Provide a worksheet or digital template to scaffold the task (see sample below).

📝 Sample Student Worksheet (Excerpt)

🧩 Extensions

• Compare climate data with land use change.

• Look for evidence of natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, flooding).

• Analyze changes in protected areas vs. unprotected ones.

📌 Tips for a Smooth Lesson

• Test EarthExplorer ahead of time — it can be slow.

• Focus on visual analysis, not technical image processing.

• Consider assigning locations to students to avoid duplication.

• Provide support with vocabulary and satellite imagery interpretation.