Many visible light still images of Old Faithful can be found in:

Image Appendix, Image Set 1: Old Faithful (Section VII, A): (MS word version | pdf version)

1. Without informing your learners that they are about to see a geyser/Old Faithful, introduce the activity by telling them they are going to see something really neat and that you want them to come up with questions about what they are seeing.

2. Show your learners the video clip or still visible light image of Old Faithful Geyser. Give them time to formulate questions and curiosities.

3. Guide your learners through a discussion about their questions and how they can or cannot be answered just by looking at the image or video clip. Find out what sparks their curiosity and use that energy to guide the lesson.

Below are some sample questions and curiosities that may be expressed during your discussion. Some of the students may already be familiar with Old Faithful and know that it shoots up hot water and it is located in a volcanic caldera in Yellowstone National Park. Instead of allowing them to halt your activity and the curiosity of your other learners, you can use their prior knowledge to tackle the deeper concept, "How can you get that particular information from this photo/video?"

Sample Discovery questions:

• What is this?
  
• How does it work?
  
• Why is it shooting liquid upward?
  
• What is that liquid?
  
• Is the liquid hot, warm, cool, or cold?*
  
• Where is it located geographically?
  
• Where is it located geologically?
  
• Why does it even matter where it is?

*The temperature of the liquid is a key question to raise since it will tie into the infrared image activities that follow.

4. During the discussion, write on a chalkboard some of the major questions and curiosities your learners have that they cannot seem to answer just by looking at the visible light photo or video clip. You will be re-using these questions on Day 2 so be sure to record them at the end of the day.

5. Ask your learners to quickly brainstorm ways they can get their questions answered. This is where you can lead into the idea of taking different kinds of pictures. Some may be familiar with black and white photos, digital photos, long exposure photos (to show movement), x-ray films, film negatives, and night vision video camera settings. Through this lesson, you have a unique set of images to introduce to them to which may help them get a few of their questions answered. Later, they will be able to use an infrared image to answer the question about the "temperature of the liquid".

B. Exploring Infrared Imaging

Activity Time: 25-45 minutes

In this section you will introduce your learners to the unique images you mentioned at the end of their brainstorm. This lesson is a mini-exploration and serves as an introduction to infrared imaging. At the conclusion of this exploration, your learners should understand the following:

• Infrared cameras can detect how much infrared radiation/light an object is emitting
  
• Infrared images (like the ones here) show how much infrared light was detected by the camera. Infrared light is used to measure the heat emitted by these objects. This measurement is transferred to color codes and is equivalent to degrees Fahrenheit.
  
• The infrared image has been scaled to show the temperature of the various areas of the object using a false-color map.
  
• False-color maps, like the infrared images here, come with a legend that tells the observer which temperatures are associated with which colors. This is how someone can accurately interpret the image.
  
• By looking at or observing the images, one can determine warmer or cooler areas. One is unable to do this with visible light images.

This activity is common to many of our lesson guides. Please go back to Exploring Infrared Imaging to access the lesson guide.