Infrared Zoo Lesson 2 Dinner in the Dark

DAY 2: LEARN ABOUT INFRARED LIGHT AND INFRARED IMAGE TECHNOLOGY

A. Exploring Infrared Image Technology

Activity Time: approximately 25-45 minutes

For certain, your learners will have lingering questions left over from the previous activity. Two of which may be:

• How does the snake (pit viper) locate its meal in the dark dense forest (desert floor)?
  
• Why are we talking about "nighttime seeing" specifically?

This section on infrared light and infrared image technology will help them get closer to finding answers. Before diving into this presentation, you should ask if anyone knows how snakes (pit-vipers) can sense their dinner in the dark. Their brainstorm answers will help introduce and make connections to the activity/presentation as certain snakes, like pit-vipers, can sense infrared light radiating from its prey.

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. The 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 to Exploring Infrared Image Technology to access the lesson guide.