The front of the 2018 Earth Science Week poster
NASA, AmericaView, and USGS have created a fun and educational new poster to celebrate Earth Science Week 2018 — October 14-20, 2018. The poster offers inspiring Landsat views of the American landscape on its front and has a fun game of exploration on its reverse side.
Landsat as Inspiration
Landsat inspires us to observe, explore, and understand our Earth from space. The Landsat series of satellites have been acquiring meaningful and inspiring images since 1972, creating the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land in existence.
The captivating colors and textures of Earth’s varied landscapes inspired the front of this poster. The top image shows the folds of the Appalachian Mountains. The trees and other vegetation appear red in this false color composite using near infrared data. The dark wiggly line is the Susquehanna River winding through the mountains and farms of southeastern Pennsylvania. The second image shows fields watered by center pivot irrigation appear as giant green circles in Kansas. Utah’s exquisite Canyonlands National Park is featured third. The winding Colorado and Green Rivers amid the landscape’s vibrant yellow and gold colors. The bottom image is of the bright blue and green deltas at the mouth of the Atchafalaya River and the Wax Lake outlet. These are just four incredible Landsat images from an archive of over 7 million.
Exploring America with Landsat – board game
Download a copy today, and play the Exploring America with Landsat game where two to four players, ages 7 and up, race each other to explore different regions of the U.S. All you need is a playing piece and 4 markers per player, and a deck of playing cards.
+ Poster Back (189MB)
+ Poster Front (7MB)
+ Board Game Cards (14.5MB)
Alternate Game Play
- Pick locations — Create four cards from four different colors of paper. Label the first color cards A, B, C, and D. Label the second color cards E, F, G, H. Label the third color cards I, J, K, L. And label the last color cards M, N, O, P. At the start of the game, each player selects one card of each color. Those become the locations they must visit to win the game.
- Chance cards – Download and cut out these cards. Place on the board and when any player plays a 7 or 2 playing card, they must choose 1 Chance card and follow the instructions.
- Create your own game — Create your own rules or your own cards. Browse and print some of the inspiring Landsat images from Earth Observatory or Earth as Art gallery to make your own Chance cards.
If you create a new way to play the game, share on social media with the #LandsatGame.
Landsat Image Puzzles
“Try your skill at these web-based puzzles of all the images from this poster and others. Created by AmericaView as part of their Earth Observation Day activities, there are dozens of puzzles with a variety of skill levels.”
Spanish Versions of the Poster and Game
+ Poster Front (3MB)
+ Poster Back (PDF 10MB)
Additional Resources
+ AmericaView
AmericaView is a nationwide, university-based, and state- implemented consortium that advances the widespread use of remote-sensing data and technology through education, outreach, and workforce development for the public and private sectors.
+ USGS EROS Earth at Art
+ USGS Landsat
+ NASA Earth Observatory
