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this past monday was earth day

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and all of this earth week we have been

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putting a spotlight on different ways

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that the international space station is

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used to study our planet

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astronauts on the station of course have

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been taking impromptu pictures of earth

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since they arrived more than a dozen

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years ago as well as getting particular

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images that are requested by scientists

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on the ground who are documenting the

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state of different locations on the

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ground

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there are also pictures taken by cameras

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that are on board the station yet are

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controlled by people who are on the

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ground and in this case it's young

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people middle school and college

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students who are working together to

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take part in space station program as

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well as the study of earth

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the investigation is called earth cam it

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was founded by sally ride it flew on

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shuttle missions in the late 1990s and

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has been operating on the international

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space station since expedition 2.

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the photographs that it takes and posts

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on its website are captured by a camera

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that looks down through a window at the

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earth the targets for those photos are

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determined by participating middle

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school students at schools not only

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across the country but all around the

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world

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today we're going to learn a little more

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about earth cam from the point of view

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of those who are participating joining

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me on the phone is dave curry dave is an

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8th grade earth and space science

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teacher at holland middle school in

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holland pennsylvania dave how long have

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you had your students participating in

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earth camp

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hi pat uh thanks for having me today

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we learned about earth cam first from a

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fellow teacher in

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2006 in january 2006 and i've been an

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active participant since then i've been

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using it every year in my classroom

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what was it that attracted you to it

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middle school is really

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an age where we try to hook kids on

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science and we try to have them actively

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involved in the learning with hands-on

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activity minds on activity so i was

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really attracted by the fact that kids

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were actually involved doing something

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themselves and they would see a result

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from that

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it's one thing for a teacher to to think

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that your students would enjoy this i

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wonder if in practice you found that

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they have

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i have in fact the kids when i tell them

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we're going to the library to get on the

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computer to do earth cam i hear yes all

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right like awesome because they're

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they're excited to go to the library and

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and do this uh it's sure beat sitting in

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the classroom and maybe listening to

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lecture or taking notes which

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tunes them out so this really tunes them

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into learning and gets them involved

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with the science

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uh speaking only on behalf of one former

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middle class middle school student i i

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can think that some of them might be a

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little intimidated by the idea that

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they're going to take part in the space

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program

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they actually find it hard to believe

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that they're actually controlling

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a camera on the international space

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station they're familiar with google

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earth and they know how to look at

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images from space but when i tell them

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that the picture that they're going to

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take is is almost live it's like right

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now

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picture is taken that just brings a

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whole level of realism to it that makes

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it uh even more interesting i think to

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them and and they tell me this

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well i'm going to ask you to hand off

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the phone right now and see if we can't

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get a couple of them to tell the rest of

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us uh how they how they do it we're

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going to hear now from a couple of uh

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dave curry's students about their

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participation in earth camp uh first on

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the line with me is uh alison castronovo

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uh allison how many earth cam missions

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have you participated in

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um i've participated in four earth cam

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missions this year

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for this year

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yeah

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so you've been doing it constantly

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yeah

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how do you decide

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what targets on the earth you want to

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take pictures of

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well at first i looked at google earth

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and i saw all of like the oceans and the

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beaches and i was i thought to myself

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hey that looks really cool so

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i tried to find anywhere where it was

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on a coastline

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all right well

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i got you to share one of your pictures

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with us that we can show everybody else

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right now i want to ask you to describe

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what it is that we're seeing in this in

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this picture

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coastline of new zealand

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and

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there's

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very crystal blue water and if you look

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to the to the right side of the picture

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there's a large mountain range and

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next to it a bunch of trees which

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actually when you look very close at it

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i discovered this when after i saw the

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picture there's a like a strange pattern

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in the trees

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and you can see all the detail of like

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the towns

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so it sounds as though

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you found what you were looking for

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exactly and i also found more because i

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never expected all of that detail

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very interesting let me ask you to hand

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the phone to your classmate who's uh

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who's there with you we're gonna get one

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more perspective on what it's like to be

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part of the earthkam experiment

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on the phone with us now another holland

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middle school student andrew harmon uh

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andrew how did you decide what it is you

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want to shoot

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well i decided my target when i was

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looking around on the map

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and when i saw it first i thought it was

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a small island off the coast of egypt

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but when i took a closer look i saw it

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was very rugged terrain

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so it made me think

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so i looked it up on the internet and

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found out it had volcanic activity so i

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took the picture

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now we're showing the picture to

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everyone now who's who's watching us

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and i want to ask you to describe it

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because i've looked at this now for a

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day or two and i'm really not sure what

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i'm seeing here

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well you're basically seeing

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lots of erosion from streams and stuff

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like that and

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to the left of the picture you're

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probably seeing either volcanic rock or

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plant growth to the left side of the

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island

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yeah okay

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did you

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learn

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now let me ask it a better way what did

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you learn from seeing this picture that

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you had wanted to see

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well i learned about this remote island

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off the coast of egypt

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and that there was a volcanic eruption

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on it in 1969

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and that's what it looks like now

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yeah

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great andrew thank you if you would hand

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the phone back to mr curry for just a

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moment uh dave you had told me earlier

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as we were talking that virtually all of

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your students who've taken part in earth

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cam have been enthusiastic about it i

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wonder from the perspective that you

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have of seeing them both before they

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were involved in this and afterwards

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do you see that their participation has

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had a benefit for them beyond just the

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cool pictures they end up with

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absolutely

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it really

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takes away learning out of the textbook

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and makes it real to life in real world

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so when i have the students go online

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and select pictures using latitude and

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longitude sometimes they make mistakes

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and they put you know north latitude

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instead of south latitude and the earth

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cam interface is really nice it lets you

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know that there's something wrong with

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the request so

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from their mistakes they actually learn

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about latitude and longitude they learn

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about topography they learn as you as

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you've heard about erosion volcanic

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activity so it teaches them all kinds of

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things that are normally part of the

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curriculum that i would normally teach

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but it actually teaches them by doing

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which is really fantastic

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dave i want to thank you and

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allison and andrew for sharing your

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story about earth cam with us thank you

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very much

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uh and let everyone know that the the

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current earth cam mission that's been

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operating during this earth week does

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run through this weekend

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anybody can get a look at the pictures

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that have been returned by this

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investigation and teachers can find out

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more about how they can get their own

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classes involved by going online to the

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earthkam website the address that you

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earthkam.ucsd.edu that's university of

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san diego

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you can go onto their website or to the

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website for sally ride science which is

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sallyridescience.com

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the