Museum of Innovation and Science

Pixel Me This

Making Waves

Landsat 1, artist's conception. Landsat 1 launched in 1972 to capture detailed images of the Earth's surface. The program continues today with Landsat 9

Satellite Explorer

Program Description

The earliest form of communication that humans can master is making sounds with our mouths: crying, babbling, and cooing draws adults to babies, just as speaking, shouting, or laughing brings older children and adults together. In-person language is limited though: what if you want to talk to a friend on vacation, or need to speak to a doctor across town?

The discovery of electromagnetic radio waves and the invention of commercial radio units has transformed modern life, allowing for news, music, and art from far-flung areas to be brought into our own homes. From simple walkie-talkie toys, to ham radio hobbyists, to military satellites, radio waves have allowed our society to transfer information almost immediately via conversion to sound and light.


·        Be able to describe the different uses of radios and radio waves in communication, including for military and transportation communication, weather tracking, and global positioning systems (GPS)

·        Use publicly available satellite data to interpret weather events and their impact

·        Operate a basic GPS device and understand where/how that data originates

·        Design their own geocache and direct other students to its location using GPS coordinates

·        1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.

o  Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include a light source to send signals, paper cup and string “telephones,” and a pattern of drum beats.

o  Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technological details for how
communication devices work.

·        4-PS3-2. Make observations to provide evidence that energy is conserved as it is transferred and/or converted from one form to another
one form to another. [Clarification Statement: Examples of forms of energy could include sound, light, heat, and electrical.] [Assessment
Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.

·        MS-PS4-3: Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.

o  Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on a basic understanding that waves can be used for communication purposes. Examples could include using fiber optic cable to

o  transmit light pulses, radio wave pulses in Wi-Fi devices, and conversion of stored binary patterns to make sound or text on a computer screen.

Radio at Work--Two-Way Communication

education standards