The "Grow Smart" web site helps teachers to use Landsat data, in conjunction with local maps and aerial photographs, in the classroom to teach land use changes over time. Teachers can use the resources presented here to facilitate an interdisciplinary unit if desired. The unit design can also be customized to suit other problems besides urban growth using the same techniques. This unit was field-tested in local middle and high schools.

With the Grow Smart unit, Students will learn to work with Landsat data and Multispec image processing software to determine the extent and types of land cover change, including urban sprawl and its consequences, that have occurred in the Washington, DC region over a 17 year period.

The growth of cities and suburbs change the vegetative land cover in an area. Schools, housing developments, asphalt, and athletic fields replace meadows, forests and farmlands. In arid areas, deserts become green with irrigation-supported lawns and golf courses. Changes in the pattern or distribution and the type of vegetation can be characterized through the use of Landsat data. Landsat images can be manipulated to better distinguish plants from other types of land cover through the use of imaging processing software like MultiSpec. This manipulation is possible due to the way plants, with their unique spectral signature, reflect light back into space.