1. What is the topic of your investigation? 
``EarthKAM Kids Examine Equatorial Deforestation with STS-89 Images''

2. What are some of the questions your students are asking about this topic?
Why are so many areas of the world's rainforests being cleared?
What is the impact of fires on humans and habitats in the rainforest?
How can the loss of habitat be measured using space borne images?
Why is so much burning taking place in the world's rainforests?
What are some Web applications that can be used to study rainforests?
How can space shuttle images help us understand the issue of habitat loss?

3. What images will you need for your investigation?
We will need past and present images of equatorial rainforest locations, such as of the Amazon, Belize, Indonesian Rainforests. We would like to compare past and present images using Web tools like ArcView, NIH Image and JNC mapping. We would like to investigate areas with major clearing and loss of habitat.

4. Do you already have at least one EarthKAM image selected for your investigation? If so, what does it show, and what is the ID #?
We have an image of Manaus, Brazil with a great deal of slash and burn taking place around the Amazon river basin.

5. What new images will you try to get during the STS-89 mission in January?
We would like to select images that are recognized areas showing recent fire damage and deforestation.

6. What other sources of images will you use?
Our sources indicates that there are shuttle photos that we can use from past missions and compare with those taken on this mission.

7. Describe the investigation, including what you will investigate and how you will do the investigation.
The most dramatic and impressive pictures for our students from the STS86 mission were the images of the fires around the city of Manaus, Brazil. Subsequent research and news articles brought home to the students the level of destruction and pollution occurring in the rainforest. Because of these images and the fact that there was a high percentage of success obtaining images of tropical regions, Valley students have chosen to focus on examining the equatorial deforestation dilemma.

Our goal is to examine and explore the effects of deforestation on humans and habitats in the equatorial rainforests. We will use ARCview, NIH Image, JNC mapping, along with web site imaging tools to measure the extent of destruction by highlighting burned and cleared areas on past and present image maps. Comparative and computational analysis of captured images will quantify the ecological effects taking place in these regions. Our findings will be shared district wide and with the San Diego educational community via conferences and school web site.

Our final product will be a digital diorama of images and models placed in our school library and portable to other middle schools, along with ``EarthKAM Compact Disc Presentation'' of student analyzed images and findings.

8. What is your schedule for this research project?
We have started to gather news articles on the recent fires and drought in Brazil and Indonesia. We will work with a large number of interested students during our lunch hours and after school so that it is open campus wide. We have a trained core of twenty students who are very good at selecting sites, using maps, tracking orbits, analyzing cloud cover and researching information on Shuttle imaging. We will work on this from December 2nd - 19th and then again January 5th - 15th in preparation for the launch January 15, l998.

9. How will this integrate with and support your local curriculum priorities?
It will fit right into our ``Earth Science Curriculum'' standards and units we have prepared on protecting the environment.

10. What help do you think you will need as you do the research project?
We will need suggested web sites and images that relate to our investigation of the ``Equatorial Deforestation Dilemma''. Also ways that we can analyze the images using the latest computational tools on and off the Internet. News articles and other research findings from these regions would be helpful in our investigation also.

Manaus, Brazil
STS089.ESC.01084236