Pre-requisite Skills for Learners:

Your learners should have the following skills in order to participate efficiently and smoothly in this lesson:

• Ability to work in small collaborative groups of 3-4 students each
  
• Ability to work independent of direct instructor facilitation as the instructor will be wandering the classroom and helping all groups
  
• Ability to communicate findings, reasoning, and work to others
  
• Cognitive ability to recognize patterns that have not been introduced/explained before hand
  
• Prior experience with inquiry-based and explorative learning

Pre-requisite Content Knowledge for Learners:

Prior to this lesson, learners should be familiar with the following concepts:

• Temperature is a measure of the average heat or thermal energy of the particles in a substance.
  
• Heat can move from place to place.
  
• (optional) Prior experience using color-coded or false-color maps (like meteorologist weather temperature maps used on the evening news)

Preparation Work for the Instructor:

1. Determine how you will present the images to your learners for these activities.

• If projecting through a computer and internet connection, preload and bookmark pages you will need.

  a. Infrared Popsicle, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/popsicle.html
  b. Infrared Toaster, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/toaster.html
  c. Infrared Blow Dryer, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/blowdryer.html
  d. Cups Containing Hot and Cold Water, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/cups.html
  e. Faucet Running Hot and Cold Water, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/faucet.html
  f. Shoe Just After Being Worn, http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/shoe.html

• If you do not have internet access in the classroom to use, download and save on disk/CD the images you will need and then make a PowerPoint presentation to run the activity.
  
• If you cannot project via computer, make color transparencies for an overhead projector. Printable images are in Image Appendix (Section IV) (MS Word version | pdf version) for this lesson.
  
• If you wish each group to have images, then color print and laminate images from Image Appendix (Section IV) (MS Word version | pdf version) for this lesson.

2. With the help of the Background Knowledge and Resources for the Instructor shown in the next section below on this page, put together a short presentation/lecture on the following (suggested) topics that fits it with your own curriculum goals:

a. Infrared Light - What is infrared light?
b. Infrared Cameras - How do they work?
c. False color images - What are false-color images? What specifically do infrared images reveal?
d. Interpreting false color images - How do you read a temperature scale? What do the colors in an infrared image represent?

3. Design an evaluation rubric for this lesson based upon your learners, how you have tailored this lesson, and where this lesson falls into your curriculum. We do not provide an "evaluation" activity/rubric in this lesson, but we do provide sample learning goals generic to this lesson "as is".

4. The sample learning goals are listed in the General Information section (Section I) of this lesson.

Background Knowledge and Resources for the Instructor:

Provided below are some internet resources to help you get a better grasp on infrared light and imaging. Please note that we have compiled a Cool Cosmos Teachers Guide to the Infrared that can be found at: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_yellowstone/lessons/background.html.

Infrared Tutorial
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/ir_tutorial

Video- Infrared: More Than Your Eyes Can See
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/videos/more_than_your/

Heat and Temperature
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/light_lessons/thermal/