Tempe, Ariz., May 17, 2010 – Aerials Express, a leading international provider of high-resolution digital imagery, joined forces with local school students from Tempe Elementary School District to transform a normal school yard into a colorful mosaic and a lesson in perspective. Students combined mathematics and artistic expression to approach the problem of adapting a horizontal environment to a vertical one. Aerials Express, in conjunction with Todd Photographic Services, collected high resolution airborne imagery of the visual experiment to show the students the result of their creative efforts.

While Aerials Express is typically known for its regional-scale metropolitan coverage across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the aerial imagery company took a moment to refocus on local kids in Tempe, Arizona. Aerials Express contacted Pat Burdette, Visual Arts Curriculum Specialist with the Tempe Elementary School District who saw potential in the idea to integrate aerial imagery into the educational experience and moved forward with the project.

“It is a real treat that Pat and the Tempe Elementary School District were willing to work with us on this,” explained Robert Moore, Flight Operations Director for Aerials Express. “With the growing use of online map sites, viewing the landscape from a vertical perspective is becoming an every day experience, especially for this younger generation. What we tried to do here is give the students the opportunity to experiment within this vertical context and see the outcome first hand.”

Putting the creative energy of local elementary school students into action, fourth and fifth grade classes at Rover Elementary School utilized their basketball courts along with over 100 bottles of tempera paint to pull their vertical concept together. Over 150 students participated in the project. Each student was provided with an 18 square foot area within the larger mosaic to fill with their own individual content.

“Before painting, I took my class out for a little math lesson. They found the area of the court, then the area of the circle, and figured out the amount of negative space we had left to paint and then how much area each student would need to paint” explained Lindsey Anderson who coordinated the effort at Rover Elementary.

The resulting mosaic transformed the gray cement into a massive vividly colored representation of a peace sign. “We felt it was a good representation for the diversity at our school and it's something we want our children to strive for. It shows our belief in living peacefully among all different cultures,” said Anderson.

The high resolution aerial imagery of the project area will go through the same process as regional imagery goes through, including post-processing and quality control. The finished product will be shared with Rover Elementary so that the students can see the results of their creative experiment and hard work. Various resolutions of the vertical mosaic will also be provided so that they may also understand how pixel scales impact their visual lay-out.

“Having grown up in Tempe myself, it was nice to do something localized in our own community. We enjoyed the opportunity to connect with Tempe Elementary School District and are really impressed with the creative outcome of the project. The kids did a great job, and we are definitely looking forward to working with this and other districts in the future,” said Moore.


About Aerials Express: Aerials Express is a global leader in current high-resolution digital aerial and satellite imagery. Our commitment to current off-the-shelf imagery means an accessible and effective source of high resolution geospatial information for commercial, real estate, engineering, energy, navigation and government sectors. Aerials Express recognizes the importance of accurate, up-to-date information, and our business is built on the idea that current imagery is the cornerstone of accurate geographic decision-making and representation. For more information, please visit www.aerialsexpress.com

About Tempe Elementary School District: Tempe Elementary is a high-performing organization educating more than 12,000 kindergarten through eighth-grade students at 24 schools. Formally established in 1874, Tempe Elementary was the third school district formed in Maricopa County. www.tempeschools.org

About Todd Photographic: Todd Photographic is an Arizona institution, serving the professional needs of our many clients since 1990. Many local and national businesses have used our aerials and land-based photographic services in that time, including developers, home builders, real estate professionals, brokers, management firms, and construction companies. www.toddphoto.com