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Community Blogs
Discover how the GLOBE community is engaging in all things GLOBE through the community blog posts below.
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It turns out that we are most likely entering another mild La Niña winter across the globe. This article, “ La Nina Makes a Quiet Return ”, describes how scientists are able to use data on sea surface temperatures from were made by altimeters on the Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites, and show averaged sea surface height anomalies. Climatologists are predicting that this La Niña should last through the 2017-2018 winter period in the northern hemisphere, and then should change back to neutral conditions by late spring.
Be sure to become a ...
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Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
TECHNOLOGY
SCIENCE AND MATH
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGE
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
SCIENTIST SKILLS
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
News Topics:
SCRC RESEARCH
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
Too much water can have devastating consequences when it falls too quickly on Earth's surface. On January 9th, the " Water in Our Environment " webinar will spotlight the experiences of our GLOBE community in Asia and the Pacific.
Earlier this week in the Philippines, tropical cyclone Kai-Tak wrecked havoc on this region as it caused extreme flooding and landslides .
On December 4th and 5th, tropical cyclone Ockhi was the strongest cyclone to develop in the Arabian Sea since 2015, and it brought intense rainfall to the western part of India.
A recent CNN report stated ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
SCIENCE AND MATH
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
Field Campaigns:
WATERSHEDS
EL NIÑO
SMAP
GPM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GENERAL SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGE
DATA INCLUDED
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
SCIENTIST SKILLS
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
LAND COVER/BIOLOGY
HYDROLOGY
SOIL
News Topics:
CALENDAR
TRAINING
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
Teacher's Guide:
INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS
Check out the featured NASA article on the "88S' 470-mile Antarctic Expedition.
"In temperatures that can drop below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, along a route occasionally blocked by wind-driven ice dunes, a hundred miles from any other people, a team led by two NASA scientists will survey an unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice."
See it HERE!
We flew from Christchurch to McMurdo – 7.5 hours on a C-130 airplane operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. There were 38 passengers in the front of the aircraft and three pallets of gear in the rear. The passenger space is extremely tight; you have to work together with your neighbors to share space in an effort to remain as comfortable as possible for the long flight. And ladies, the restroom facilities are not fabulous.
Greetings from McMurdo!
Posted in:
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Follow two NASA ICESat-2 scientists, Dr. Tom Neumann and Dr. Kelly Brunt, as they head to Antarctica for 2 months to do some preliminary ICESat-2 measurements. They will travel to 88S latitude and collect measurements of the ice sheet elevation around part of the circle at that latitude. We will compare our measurements with those from ICESat-2 shortly after launch to evaluate the performance of the satellite. Click on the blog title below to see Blog 1 from the trip.
"Heading South, to New Zealand and Beyond"
Posted in:
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
At the Annual Meeting in Connecticut this summer, I asked the United States GLOBE partners and teachers to write down one GLOBE-related accomplishment on an index card. It could be either professional or personal, something that was time-consuming or one that took minutes. Whatever it was, it had to have made them proud or excited about their year in GLOBE. The responses are below:
One of the 21CCLC (after school) student groups that I worked with attended and received a Science Research Award at the SRS in New Jersey.
Wrote an article on Education Outreach - various ...
Posted in:
Event Topics:
MEETINGS
News Topics:
MEETINGS
REGIONS
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a hearing entitled " Gravity Never Sleeps: Landslide Risk Across the Country "at the Rayburn House Office Building that was intended to inform our lawmakers and government officials about the impacts of landslides in many parts of the United States. As the topic is related to our guiding investigative question for the ENSO Student Research Campaign - " What impacts does water, above and below ground, have on our environment? ", I thought I would share some of the things that I learned.
Jonathan Godt, the Landslide Hazard Programs Coordinator ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
SCIENCE AND MATH
TECHNOLOGY
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGE
DATA INCLUDED
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
SCIENTIST SKILLS
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
GLOBE Working Groups:
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
LAND COVER/BIOLOGY
HYDROLOGY
SOIL
News Topics:
VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR
REGIONS
TRAINING
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
The next Phase III GLOBE ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) Student Research Campaign SODA (Short Observation and Data Analysis) webinar will be held on 04 December at 2:00 p.m. EST (7:00 p.m. UTC): “ SODA, Live from Croatia (Featuring Teachers Marina Balažinec and Marija Krajnik and their student stars).” To join the webinar, click here !
How SODA webinars work:
Introduction of featured teacher, students, and school (2 minutes)
Presentation by featured teacher and/or students (20-25 minutes)
Chosen Phase III Guiding Investigative Question(s) ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
"Rivers and floodplains as key components of global terrestrial water storage variability"
Check out this new research. Did you know that terrestrial water storage differs across different climate zones? A team of NASA civil servant and contractor researchers have been using data from several NASA instruments and satellites to better understand the correlation of rivers and floodplains with global terrestrial water storage variability.
One of the NASA researchers, Dr. Matthew Rodell, will be our featured presenter for the ENSO Campaign's Phase III Webinar to be held on ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Currently, Science education has transitioned away from textbooks to more hands on learning. This is an amazing opportunity for teachers to move away from the normal lecturing and explaining in class to reshaping the process of learning.
I think that the GLOBE Program is a fantastic organization and empowered program that promises to give an essential change in education. One example is teaching and learning from directs activities in the field.
An excellent activity is to share data from school to school through collaboration. Students can share what they are ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Event Topics:
OTHER
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
GLOBE Working Groups:
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
News Topics:
VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Over the past few years I have been asked how to run a successful international collaboration from school to school. After much thought and reflection I have decided to blog about my experiences and the knowledge I have gained.
As an experienced teacher who has had success with multiple International Collaborations, I would advise you and your GLOBE students to start by getting involved in an existing GLOBE campaign online, rather than trying to start a project of your own. This is a great way to get your feet wet before you dive in.
Participating in other campaign projects is ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Event Topics:
GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
Field Campaigns:
SMAP
GPM
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
GLOBE Working Groups:
TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP
EVALUATION WORKING GROUP
SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Many of us are so used to having clean freshwater that is easily accessible that we don't often stop to marvel at the fact that we are incredibly fortunate. The majority of our freshwater comes from our water cycle, and precipitation is unevenly distributed across the globe. You can learn more about the importance of clean freshwater resources in this "one-pager" entitled " Precious Freshness ".
During our ENSO Phase III Webinar #3, we will be focusing on water quality in Europe and Eurasia. We will host this webinar at 18:30 UCT, and hope we will have many of you from ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS
STEM
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
Field Campaigns:
WATERSHEDS
EL NIÑO
GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
SCIENTIST SKILLS
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
GLOBE Working Groups:
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
Learning Activities:
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
HYDROLOGY
News Topics:
VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR
SCRC RESEARCH
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
Written By Allyson Edwards Hawkins High School, Hawkins Texas
When signing up for the GLOBE science club at my school, little did I realize the impact that it would have on my life. Our original team, comprised of just three eighth grade girls would one day develop into an international collaboration among students in three different countries. It wasn’t always easy but it my entire worldview was changed by being apart of GLOBE.
For our story, it began with us meeting face to face at a science conference ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Event Topics:
GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
GLOBE Working Groups:
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
ALUMNI
Written by Pegi Pavletić, Croatian GLOBE Alumni
Four years ago, as a Croatian GLOBE team of Medical high school in Rijeka, Megi Pavletić, Dina Bolkovac, our professor Tatjana Holjević and I, Pegi Pavletić visited 2nd Student research exhibition in Maryland, USA. That was an exciting opportunity for us as students in medical branch of studies, to experience ecological experimental work and gain further knowledge. That is where we stepped into contact with Hawkins school in Texas and their GLOBE team: Madison Jaco, Hope Hughes, Allyson Edwards and their mentor Audra Kay ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Event Topics:
GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
GLOBE Working Groups:
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
ALUMNI
Written By Vaibhav Chakraborty New Delhi, India
It’s been almost 5 years since I first met these lovely people from Hawkins, Texas at GLOBE conference in New Delhi. At that point if someone would’ve asked me whether it’s a long run friendship or just a temporary meeting, but soon it turned out to be one of the best thing to have happened to me. While working on water and soil protocol as a part of GLOBE project, our respective schools scheduled Skype sessions so that we could exchange our data and be able to measure the differences between our data and draw a ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Event Topics:
GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
COMPETITIONS
GLOBE Working Groups:
TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP
SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
EVALUATION WORKING GROUP
Primary Audience:
ALUMNI
The journal Scientific American just published a blog about GLOBE. The post, titled " The GLOBE Program: Making the Case for K–12 Citizen Scientists " discusses several aspects of GLOBE, including our contributions and campaigns. As well, it helps explain our mission of providing the resources for students across the world to become citizen scientists.
"Contributing to global datasets not only gives students a chance to collect data that scientists can actually use, but allows them to compare their experiences and findings with other students around the world."
To read more ...
Posted in:
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
OTHER
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
SURFACE TEMPERATURE
GLOBE Science Topics:
SCIENTIST SKILLS
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
BACKYARD SCIENCE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
From the start, the measurement of daily maximum and minimum air temperature within one hour of local solar noon has been a key GLOBE protocol. The low cost approach was to use a U-tube thermometer housed in a wooden instrument shelter facing away from the equator. The U-shaped tube contained mercury with pins on either side of the mercury. As the air temperature warmed the pin on one side would move while the other pin stayed in place; when the air cooled, the pin on the other side would be pushed up. The pins were held in place by magnetized strips behind the thermometer tube so that ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
TECHNOLOGY
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE
GLOBE Working Groups:
SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
I recently had the pleasure of meeting a GLOBE student named Aspen. I was excited because my favorite type of tree is Aspen (Quaking Aspen to be more specific, Populus tremuloides to be even more specific), and I was able to tell her some of the fun facts about her namesake.
My favorite thing about aspens is their bark. The white powder on it can act as sunscreen. It’s only about an SPF of 5 but it’s still pretty cool. The bark also contains chloroplasts which means it can photosynthesize, making it one of the few deciduous trees that do not solely rely on leaves for ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
BIOSPHERE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
I was selected as a National Geographic 2017 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow which is a professional development opportunity that provides educators a rich, immersive experience exploring the world to bring back to their teaching and communities. I and two other educators traveled with Lindblad Expeditions around Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland on the ship the National Geographic Explorer, making stops for excursions along the way.
I decided to do field work on my Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship because 1) that is what one does on an expedition according ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Learning Activities:
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
As Earth science has a single uncontrolled object of study, the first rule is to take today’s data today. While ice and sediment cores and fossils can reveal past conditions, the observations that can be made right now cannot be replaced by ones taken later. This goes well with the Native American adage, “You can’t step in the same river twice.” The environment is constantly changing and doing so on a wide range of time and space scales.
In a recent video post, Neil deGrasse Tyson said,
“One of the great things about science is that it is an entire exercise finding what is true. You ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
SMAP
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GENERAL SCIENCE
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
ALUMNI
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