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Discover how the GLOBE community is engaging in all things GLOBE through the community blog posts below.
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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 ...
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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
The UCAR Center for Science Education (UCAR SciEd) and BSCS are developing GLOBE Weather , an innovative, NGSS -based middle school science unit that combines activities, data analysis, and scientific protocols from the GLOBE Program . This project is funded by NASA and in coordination with the GLOBE Implementation Office. The final curriculum unit will be available (and free!) in 2019.
In the 5-week GLOBE Weather curriculum, students will engage with weather data to make sense of interesting real-world phenomena through the BSCS 5E instructional approach ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
MEETINGS/CONFERENCES
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
Teacher's Guide:
NGSS
MIDDLE: 6-8
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
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
It is pretty neat when you can get two for the price of one- as most teachers can attest to with regard to trying to get everything into their curriculum. Did you know that this year, the FIRST LEGO League's challenge is focused on water. And what could be better, as that water is also the theme of this year's ENSO Student Research Campaign !
The LEGO Challenge Project states: "People use water every day, but they don’t think much about how and why they use water. Whether it’s directly (drinking or washing) or indirectly (manufacturing the products they use or producing food ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
SCIENCE AND MATH
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
COMPETITIONS
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
WATERSHEDS
GPM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
News Topics:
COMPETITIONS
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
Observations of daily precipitation have been a part of GLOBE from the beginning. At the start, GLOBE’s participation model was that schools would take measurement following all of the original 17 protocols. Atmosphere temperature, precipitation, cloud, and soil moisture measurements were to be collected daily at a site easily accessible to the school. A permanent installation of an instrument shelter containing a max/min thermometer mounted to a post along with a rain gauge was the expected norm with other measurements taken nearby. Daily temperature and precipitation measurements were ...
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
GPM
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
GLOBE Working Groups:
SCIENCE WORKING GROUP
EDUCATION WORKING GROUP
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Teacher's Guide:
DOCUMENT TYPES
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
Quaking aspens can grow in a wide range of environmental conditions. They can tolerate a wide variety of variations in climate and environmental conditions including slope, moisture, surrounding vegetation, and soil ( https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/aspen/ecology.shtml ). I found this information with a simple web search. But, before there was access to infinite articles, websites, and papers all a click away, scientists had to figure out growth trends using data. So, before I decided to do a web search about the environmental conditions of aspen habitats (my memorized aspen ...
Posted in:
Event Topics:
SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS
GLOBE Science Topics:
SCIENTIST SKILLS
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
ATMOSPHERE
BIOSPHERE
News Topics:
VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR
Primary Audience:
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
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
One of the things I do as a GLOBE partner is facilitate workshops for educators. When I facilitate a workshop for credit, I always require a short reflection. I use reflection because when teachers, like all of us, stop and think about what they learned the learning is deeper and more relevant. And, candidly, they are more likely to implement GLOBE into their classrooms.
To give participants direction in their reflecting, I use the 4 R model of reflection: review, relate, remark, revise.
- Review. Participants review and summarize one salient aspect of the workshop . ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS
SCIENCE AND MATH
Event Topics:
WORKSHOPS
GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
CLOUDS
Learning Activities:
CLOUD WATCH
OBSERVING, DESCRIBING, AND IDENTIFYING CLOUDS
ESTIMATING CLOUD COVER
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
PARTNERS
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Teacher's Guide:
UPPER PRIMARY: 3-5
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
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3kwd0hHXG--39z2ADxi7-blg11wAx1RUG42GVHgsG12BP6g/viewform?c=0&w=1 Did you know that mosquito-borne diseases are impacted by both the El Nino and the La Nina weather patterns? Tonight during the ENSO Student Research Campaign Webinar #10 (at 8 pm EST) Dr. Assaf Anyamba will share the results of his research on the impact of these different patterns on the onset of Rift Valley fever in parts of Africa. As we know, these changing weather patterns alter the normal climatic conditions for regions around the world. In some places, this results in ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
EDUCATION RESEARCH
SCIENCE AND MATH
TECHNOLOGY
Event Topics:
CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
SCIENTIST SKILLS
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
SCIENTISTS
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
GLOBE is a useful resource for educators in both the formal and informal sector. Below is a guest blog post from GLOBE trained educator Jane Amiotte who is the 4H Youth Program Advisor in Pennington County here in South Dakota. One of the things that I think Jane does well is to use GLOBE with other resources and in various settings. GLOBE mixes and matches well!
How do you use GLOBE in your setting?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earth Systems
I presented the Elementary GLOBE Earth Science Systems program “We Are All Connected” to the classrooms ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Investigation Areas:
SOIL CHARACTERIZATION
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
FRESHWATER MACROINVERTEBRATES
BIOMETRY (INCLUDING TREE HEIGHT)
AEROSOLS
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
Teacher's Guide:
UPPER PRIMARY: 3-5
LOWER PRIMARY: K-2
Mr. Jeff Bouwman and his Shumate Middle School students are NASA GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign superstars. Check out what they have been doing in the video below!
Shumate Middle School was the first location for a new WeatherSTEM program, including a weather station, cloud camera, and an agricultural station. Learn more in the video below!
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Check out the wonderful ENSO Introductory Video from the National Weather Service Office in Bismarck, North Dakota. USA!
Also, to gain a more in-depth knowledge of the science of ENSO, please visit our friends at the State Climate Office of North Carolina. The have some excellent ENSO information, with links to some pertinent external expertise.
Posted in:
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
Scientists rely on research, statistical models, and climate forecast models to help them determine upcoming natural events.
Currently, scientists are have a difficult time deciding if and when the potential big El Niño event will happen. It will happen in 2017, but will it be the Summer or Fall?
"Right now, many climate forecast models do predict the development of a full-fledged El Niño during this summer or fall. It’s likely that these models are acting on the much warmer-than-average waters near the coast of South America—the “Coastal El Niño" says Anthony Barson in his NOAA ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION
EDUCATION RESEARCH
LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS
SCIENCE AND MATH
TECHNOLOGY
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
SMAP
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
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
Just when you think that perhaps the weather systems are settling down- our amazing scientific instruments are able to detect a potential change! I never cease to be amazed at what we are able to learn about Earth's systems- both from the ground and from space!
This article from the New York Times just came across my newsfeed- " It's Like it Never Left: Another El Nino May be on the Way ".
In the article, it states that " Among the potential effects are wetter conditions across the southern United States, including Southern California; a drier Midwest; and drought in ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
EDUCATION RESEARCH
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
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:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
How do you ENSO?
Did you know that students from around the world are taking measurements as part of the NASA GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign?
Check out what's happening at the Medford Memorial Middle School in New Jersey, USA!
We are looking for YOUR videos, showcasing your students taking measurements that are part of the NASA GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign. (Note, you will need to have GLOBE photo releases for each of the students shown in your video. They can be found HERE .
Please contact Brian Campbell for more details and/or ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
Field Campaigns:
EL NIÑO
SMAP
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
HYDROSPHERE
PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)
BIOSPHERE
Primary Audience:
TRAINERS
TEACHERS
STUDENTS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
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