Community Blogs

Greetings from Grosse Ile, Michigan (United States of America)! Recently, I had the honor of being published in the National Science Teachers Association's (NSTA) April/May 2018 edition of Science and Children with my good friend, Dr. Stein Brunvand (Associate Dean - University of Michigan - Dearborn - College of Education, Health, and Human Services).  Dr. Brunvand and I shared some ideas for introducing Citizen Science and technology in an elementary classroom setting.  Many of these best practices were utilized when I was a fifth grade teacher at Frank E. Weiss Elementary...

If you are attending the Michigan Science Teachers Association (MSTA) Conference this coming Friday, March 2, 2018 in Lansing, Michigan (United States of America), I welcome you to join myself (Jeff Bouwman), David Bydlowski, and Andy Henry.  We are excited to present Aerial Exploration of Environmental Study Sites, Using Kites, Cameras and Other Sensors on Friday, March 2, 2018 at 9:00 AM and #GettingScienceDone – Citizen Science on Friday, March 2, 2018 at 11:00 AM.  Aerial Exploration of Environmental Study Sites, Using Kites, Cameras and Other Sensors will focus on the...

Let's talk about collaboration? Collaboration is a way to share your research, measurements, and ideas with others that have similar goals and interests. Collaboration is about much more than just sharing data or sharing techniques, it is about leveraging the expertise of others with your own, and combining them into a "POWERPACK" of results. During our current Phase II of the GLOBE ENSO Student Research Campaign, we are "Taking Data to the Next Level!" One way to maximize this effort is to work with other schools from around the GLOBE community to answer big questions regarding the...

How do SMAP Scientists Use GLOBE Data (Part I)? Data Analysis and Blog by Dr. Erika Podest, SMAP Scientist SMAP has been collecting soil moisture measurements since mid-April 2015, which are freely available, online through the National Snow and Ice Data Archive Center (NSIDC): https://nsidc.org/data/smap Of utmost importance is to have an assessment of the quality of the data, which is why there is a SMAP calibration/validation group. Its purpose is to determine the accuracy of the measurements and whether there are any biases. In order to calibrate and validate the SMAP data, there are...

Did you know that soil moisture plays a vital role in human health? Those nasty little critters called mosquitoes love warm, wet soil, and can carry extremely dangerous viruses and diseases. We also can use SMAP soil moisture data to assist famine early warning systems. Improved seasonal soil moisture forecasts using SMAP data will directly benefit famine early warning systems particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where hunger remains a major human health factor and the population harvests its food from rain-fed agriculture in highly monsoonal (seasonal) conditions. In...