Measuring Vegetation Health
Collaboration [Return to listing page]
Healthy plants are prime indicators of a healthy environment overall. By measuring the health of plants, we find the environmental conditions that impact the health of all organisms, including humans. Plants are like "green canaries"; if they die, other organisms will soon suffer also.
Through NASA funding, seven collaborating institutions are developing, refining, and distributing a set of hands-on activities for students and the general public to use flexibly. With technologies that detect and manipulate light, these activities offer this audience an opportunity to learn how to monitor vegetation health in their own environment.
The goals of Measuring Vegetation Health are to help teach and apply the scientific principles of light and use affordable technologies to measure the environmental health of your surroundings; to provide access to remote sensing data to create detailed stories of your local environment; and to share these stories to identify regional and national environmental trends. In addition, the project aims to help you use these ideas, technologies, information, and resources in creative ways that you find fascinating, and share your ideas and results with others.
