Community Blogs

Community Blogs
 

Included below is a feed of the latest blog posts created by the GLOBE Community. To view a tutorial on how you can create a blog click here 

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A heat lamp and reflector socket with a spring clamp may be purchased on-line for as little as $26. The amount of time required to dry samples depends on many things including the wetness of the initial sample, the soil characteristics, the relative humidity, and the temperature to which the sample is heated. GLOBE protocols specify that samples are not to be heated above 105o C. In using a heat lamp, the temperature to which the sample is heated depends on the wattage of the bulb and the distance between the heat lamp and the sample bag. I have tried drying a sample using this...

Read More About Heat Lamps for Drying Soil Samples »

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By Kristin M. Wegner (inactive), posted 7/26/16 2:56 AM

Phenology: Community Storytelling in Action (This is a continuation of my blog about Rising Voices. Click here to see the first blog entry in this series.) "How healthy is our reef?" The following day, after meeting Aunty Pua Case and hearing about the sacredness of Mauna Kea and touring the Mauna Loa Observatory, we went to the Ka’upulehu Interpretive Center to learn about place-based learning in Hawai’i. There, we met Aunty Lei - another powerful educator and leader who talked about the educational center that they created in their community and some of the ways the community...

Read More About Rising Voices Blog Three: Phenology »

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By Kristin M. Wegner (inactive), posted 7/26/16 2:24 AM

Blog Two (This is a continuation of my blog about Rising Voices. Click here to see the first blog entry in this series.) Part One: Mauna Kea “Let’s do something that is right for our mountain, and our people, and our mountain.” Location: Pu’uhuluhul, base of the Mauna Kea Mountain, en route to Mauna Loa Observatory We arrived at the base between two mountains: Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. We met Aunty Pua Case, who shared the importance of Mauna Kea to the people of Hawai’i and led us through a cultural protocol to recognize the sacredness of the space. Similar to scientific protocols,...

Read More About Rising Voices Blog Two »

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Blog One: Rising Voices: Collaborative Science with Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Solutions Credit: Craig Elevitch     Nana ka maka, look with your eyes. Ho'olohe ka pepeiao, hear with your ears (not your Heart). Paa ka waha, shut your mouth. Hana i ka lima, work with your hands.         According to the United States National Climate Assessment 2014, “climate change threatens Native Peoples’ access to traditional foods and adequate water. Alaskan Native communities are increasingly exposed to health and livelihood hazards related to...

Read More About Rising Voices Blog One: Collaborative Science with Indigenous Knowledge for Climate Solutions »

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El Niño Field Campaign members, teachers, students, and campaign team at the 20th GLOBE Annual Meeting in Estes Park, Colorado 16-21 July 2016! Keep up the awesome work!

Read More About El Niño at the 20th GLOBE Annual Meeting »

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By Scott M Graves, posted 7/16/16 5:46 PM

Hello again! Our GLOBE Technology Working Group is meeting again. This annual meeting is in Estes Park, CO. A great get together with members, students, trainers and country coordinators from around the world (GLOBE)! Here is a spherical panorama of our working group doing the important business of reviewing all our recent work, etc. GLOBE annual meeting (Estes Park, CO), Technology Working Group break out session. Discussing annual progress and challenges. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Read More About GLOBE 2016 annual meeting. »

Posted in: GLOBE Working Groups: Technology Working Group

See the latest and greatest satellite imagery of our current El Niño leading up to a potential La Niña! See more HERE!

Read More About El Niño/La Niña 2016! »

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GLOBE friends, The Annual Meeting in Colorado is only a few days away! We -the members of the Evaluation Working Group- are really excited about having the opportunity to meet in person again and about having the chance to interact with all of you. Join us for our presentations to see what we have worked on for the past year. Our efforts will be much more targeted and much more effective if you share with us your experience of using GLOBE with your students. We would like to know your success stories, your challenges, your concerns and your suggestions.  At present...

Read More About Evaluation Working Group_Completing our second year. »

Posted in: GLOBE Working Groups: Evaluation Working Group

Have you ever wondered why you need to take so much data via the GLOBE Protocols? Are you part of the GLOBE El Niño Campaign. This articled entitled, "El Niño is over, and nearly all the forecasts got it wrong", really hits home with the idea that a global event like El Niño is so unpredictable. So many parts of the environment are being affected it is really hard to predict how each environment will respond to the changes an El Niño event can bring. Read the article HERE!

Read More About El Niño! This is why your GLOBE Data is so important! »

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If you clicked on a link to this page due to some intriguing headline, I hope you will not be too disappointed. A momentary lapse in judgement inspired me to ask the GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO) for a Blog tab and now that it is here; it’s been waiting for some content. My intent was to fill this with guest bloggers, U.S. teachers in particular, writing about how they are implementing GLOBE in their classrooms. There weren’t any volunteers. [sad face] Until I can entice a couple of GLOBE teachers, you get me, Jen Bourgeault. I have had the pleasure and honor of being the U.S. Country...

Read More About The First Blog: Introducing…the U.S. GLOBE Blog…US_GLOBE… »

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Guest Blogger: Pat Benner from Somerset County Schools, Maryland and her students.               Sixth grade students at Somerset Intermediate School on the Eastern Shore of Maryland are currently studying weather, climate, and human impacts on Earth systems, synthesizing our year-long study of Earth science. We monitored and measured weather conditions daily for five weeks as we researched and analyzed the factors that influence weather phenomena. After identifying trends and cause effect relationships, we graphed our local...

Read More About TEACHER GUEST BLOG: Teacher Pat Benner and her students are comparing a non-El Niño year and an El Niño year! »

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By Peter C. Falcon, posted 5/12/16 5:10 PM

  The 2015-2016 El Niño Event - Tuesday May 17th, 2016 8:00 pm EDT (12:00 am May 18th UTC) In this hour-long webinar, Dr. William Patzert, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will share the current state of the 2015-2016 El Niño event, and will discuss whether this El Niño matched the predictions for how global weather patterns would be impacted. Participants will also learn how to use the GLOBE data visualization tools to compare and contrast the El Niño Student field campaign variables from schools around the world from David Overoye, who helps...

Read More About The 2015-2016 El Niño Event »

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By Julie Malmberg, posted 5/4/16 8:28 PM

Bird Beaks and What they Eat Overview:  Students identify ideal beak shape for food. Age: Upper primary (4th and 5th graders) assisted 1st graders Materials: Bird beak/food handout Straws Dixie cups Juice Tweezers Bowls Wild grain rice Slotted spoons Cooked noodles (macaroni or similarly shaped) Chopsticks Gummy bears White rice Scissors Marshmallows (jumbo) Plan: Ask students why birds have beaks and what they are used for - allow time for discussion. Read a book about beaks to the group. I used Birds Use Their Beaks by Elaine Pascoe. After reading, discuss...

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Posted in: Curriculum: Science and Math GLOBE Science Topics: General Science Learning Activities: Land Cover/Biology Primary Audience: Teachers Students

"The global weather pattern that has been affecting the United States over the last 9 months is coming to an end, and now its sister is likely to take hold." Check out this recent article - http://www.fox9.com/news/135728044-story  

Read More About Will La Niña Follow El Niño? »

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By John D. Moore, posted 4/28/16 4:00 PM

Click on the link forwarded by Dr.Tim Schmit (GOES-R PI) to view some amazing imagery! http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/category/goes-14

Read More About GOES Imagery of Tornado Activity »

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By Bo Lebo, posted 4/21/16 4:46 PM

  Everything went wrong yesterday. We couldn't bring up the teacher's equipment, the old fashioned thermometers were only props, my jetpack was too slow and then they had to leave, but I wanted to comment from a STEM/STEAM perspective, not a disappointment p.o.v. but from the mouths of my students working with big ideas for 4th graders. 1) They loved the cloud chart and had no idea that the atmosphere had highs and lows like the octaves we've been working towards. 2) They stopped confusing Arabic with Persian writing. (Arabic is one of the 6 UN languages that Globe uses.) 3) They...

Read More About But Clouds got in my way- not really! »

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By Bo Lebo, posted 4/20/16 10:42 PM

The kids learned to assess a problem for solutions today when the Thermometer did work  Then the log in didn't work and they still told me where to go to resolve this. https://www.wunderground.com/us/ca/lake-balboa   °F Overcast Boston, MA 51.3 °F Partly Cloudy Houston, TX 84.8 °F Partly Cloudy San Francisco, CA 70.5 °F Partly Cloudy   Lake Balboa, CA 3:43 PM PDT on April 20, 2016 (GMT -0700) South Northridge | Report | Change Station Report Station You are about to report this weather station for bad data. Please select the information that is incorrect. ...

Read More About Data Entry- Failure or Success »

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By John D. Moore, posted 4/20/16 3:47 PM

Looking for collaborators on the GOES-R Weather Watchers Project. Let's bring the satellite and STEM education community together!

Read More About GOES-R Weather Watchers »

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By Michael Griffith, posted 4/20/16 1:51 PM

Berks Nature is the new Northeast Mid-Atlantic regional partner forum member. My name is Michael Griffith and my email address is michael.griffith@berksnature.org. If you have any question please feel free to contact me. My main background is water, birds, and bugs, but I am familiar with all the protocols. We are here to help you with education in anyway possible. All my contact information is below.     Work Bio  Michael J. Griffith Education & Watershed Specialist Michael joined our staff in August of 2015. He has volunteered for many environmental...

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This is the second half to a blog posted on 25 March 2016. To see part one, click here. We are pleased that our guest blogger, Jacob Spivey, is back to share more information about oceans and climate. Jacob also blogs at Weatherbolt.  If part of the ocean has a lower salinity, then it’s going to be less dense and there won’t be as much sinking water there. This can trigger the slowdown of another circulation, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC (thank goodness scientists abbreviate some of the names that they come up with!). Like the GTC, this is another...

Read More About Sea of Change: How our Oceans Affect the Climate, Part 2 »

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By Laura Kubiak, posted 4/12/16 4:07 AM

Our swim off the shore of the Antarctic continent was coined as the “polar plunge.”  Plunge is a verb meaning “to jump quickly and energetically.”  I did just that – the quicker I got in, the sooner I could get right back out!  I plunged holding a bucket to collect the day’s water sample from Neko Harbor.  Since I had jumped into the Arctic’s water last June (read here), I was confident I could do this.  I knew just what to expect:  frigid water cold enough to feel like a million needles.  Probably overconfident from the excitement, the bitter freeze...

Read More About Polar Plunge in Antarctica! »

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The third and fourth grade students whom I work with at Cedar Grove ES asked me what will happen once the El Nino conditions begin to subside, and I admitted that I really wasn't sure. So, we used the internet and looked it up! We found a website that answered our question!  Discovery News has a great article with videos and graphics at http://news.discovery.com/earth/weather-extreme-events/will-la-nina-follow-one-of-the-strongest-ever-el-ninos-160410.htm.  This article suggests that this strong El Nino season may be followed by a La Nina event. Like all good science...

Read More About What comes next after El Nino subsides? »

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Dorian Janney, GLOBE Scientist Mentor Blog for El Nino Field Campaign   I have had the pleasure of working with two groups of elementary school students this year as their GLOBE mentor. They attend Cedar Grove Elementary School in Clarksburg, MD. My primary goal was to install an instrument box with a rain gauge and a multi-day thermometer at their school, and to help them collect and report data to GLOBE.  Here they are collecting data:   As we observed the weather patterns, they began to ask what the difference was between weather and climate. I gave them a...

Read More About Learning about the El Nino with 3rd and 4th grade students »

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Water Availability can be defined as "The hydrologic capacity of a water source (surface water body, groundwater, municipal water) to sustain additional water demands after considering other current water uses and water conditions. (GEMI, 2012) The Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission provides information on water availability and environmental stress for estimating plant productivity and potential yield. The availability of direct observations of soil moisture status and the timing and extent of potential frost damage from SMAP enables significant improvements in operational crop...

Read More About SMAP and Water Availability »

Posted in: Field Campaigns: SMAP Primary Audience: Trainers Students Teachers Partners Scientists Alumni Country Coordinators
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By Laura Kubiak, posted 4/8/16 11:09 AM

Penguins have the right of way at land and sea!  The first thing I noticed when we landed at Peterman Island (off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula) was long sled tracks down the hillside.      As I walked to take a closer look, I had to wait for a fearless gentoo penguin to cross the path in front of me, since penguins have the right of way!         Winter childhood memories of sledding with my brothers in Ohio, USA flooded my heart when I then saw several penguins tobogganing, sliding down the hills, on their...

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In the midst of a very up and down El Niño season, have you ever wondered: are all El Niños the same? For the answer to that question, we need to compare data imagery from two separate El Niño events. And what better way to do that then with global observations from space. One place to find what we’re looking for is the Center for Climate Sciences, El Niño page. http://climatesciences.jpl.nasa.gov/enso Here scientists compare multiple datasets from the largest El Niño on record, 1997-1998, with the current 2015-2016 El Niño season. Some of the datasets show what are called “anomalies”...

Read More About A Tale of Two El Niños, 1997-1998 and 2015-2016 »

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What do students in Lima Peru and Ida Michigan have in common? The answer is quite simple, the dramatic effects of this year’s El Niño. Thanks in part to The GLOBE Program’s worldwide reach in connecting schools with one another; mentorship from Dr. Kevin Czajkowski from the University of Toledo and the inquisitive nature of students from Ida Middle School. Students from Mrs. Lanna Harmon’s 6th grade class of Ida Middle School in Ida Michigan reached out to work with students from ESD Coordinator Mrs. Milagros Gallegos’s 7th grade ESD Club from Colegio Altair School in Lima, Peru. The...

Read More About An El Niño Connection, U.S. to Peru and Back »

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Our zodiac landed on a flat volcanic beach to an unexpected sight.   Gentoo penguins and Antarctic fur seals were everywhere!                  The abandoned buildings proved we were not the first people these animals shared a beach with.  Dozens of seals and penguins seemed unaware of the law, the Antarctic Treaty, to keep a minimum of 5 meters from humans.         I was first introduced to the International Antarctic Treaty when I asked my expedition leaders if I could analyze water...

Read More About Whaler's Bay, Antarctic Peninsula Water Sampling »

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Not all raindrops are created equal. The size of falling raindrops depends on several factors, including where the cloud producing the drops is located on the globe and where the drops originate in the cloud. For the first time, scientists have three-dimensional snapshots of raindrops and snowflakes around the world from space, thanks to the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. With the new global data on raindrop and snowflake sizes this mission provides, scientists can improve rainfall estimates from satellite data and in...

Read More About Why Do Raindrop Sizes Matter in Storms? »

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  Volcanoes, a steamy lagoon, abandoned buildings, abundant wildlife: my first sight of Antarctica. This is a deception of my prediction of Antarctica, which is quite fitting for the name of our first landing:  Deception Island.    The first documented people, sealers in the 1800’s, were deceived as they sailed through the entrance point, Neptune’s Bellow.  They thought they’d reach open sea, but were instead encased in this horseshoe-shaped island.    The very first Antarctic fur seal sighting will stick in my mind forever.  I sat 5 meters...

Read More About First Footsteps onto Antarctica are of Deception »

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