The curricula of the TI courses is constantly being updated and refined to keep them fresh and relevant to the needs of the teachers and students. In 2013,  the Dayton Amateur Radio Association is sponsoring and hosting an advanced TI-2 on the topic of Remote Sensing and Data Gathering which will be held in its new classroom facility in Dayton, OH, July 22-25.

There has been increasing interest among educators in high altitude balloon and robotic deployment of sensors to study remote and inhospitable environments. These kinds of activities are a good example of content that connects the science and math of STEM with the technology and engineering real world applications of those fundamental concepts. The purpose of the TI-2 Remote Sensing curriculum is to focus on the basic electronics behind the employment of sensors (temperature, pressure, position, humidity, etc.), analog to digital conversion techniques and the microcontroller programming involved in accessing the sensors, and the use of radio (packet radio-like data links) that connect those sensor outputs to the user. Once the basics of remote sensing are introduced,  teachers will explore numerous deployment systems they might use in their classrooms to include land and water robots, buoys, balloons, and satellites.

The end goal of the TI-2 Remote Sensing is to provide the in-depth knowledge and tools teachers need to help their students actually “do” remote sensing from start to finish, develop the sensor packages, collect the accumulated data, and perform the math to make sense of the data. The aim is that students will be using technology to do research, not just passively witnessing and watching someone else launch a balloon payload.

The ARRL Teachers Institute program is an intensive, expenses paid, 4-day in-service opportunity designed to help participating teachers develop a deeper understanding of not only the content of basic electronics, the science of radio, space technology in the classroom, microcontroller programming, and basic robotics, but also to make the connections between these science and math concepts and the engineering and technology applications of those concepts…in other words real STEM instruction that will result in real student learning.

Though participants need not hold an amateur radio license to enroll in the introductory TI-1, to be considered for a seat in TI-2 Remote Sensing, participants must possess at least a Technician class license at the time of application. Previous participation in the TI-1 is required. ARRL membership is also required.