GLOBE News
GLOBE Student Conference and Competition (“GLOBE Games”) in Croatia
The GLOBE Program community of Croatia celebrated science with hundreds of students who came together to show their research skills at the national GLOBE Games.
The event is organized at 2 levels (regional and national) every year and it has been included in the National competitions system under the Ministry of Education. GLOBE schools are grouped in 7 regions and at each of them the regional event is organized first by the local coordinator. All GLOBE schools in the region are invited to participate in this event where schools present their research. From the regional level, the projects are selected based on common criteria to go up to the national level competition.
The Best of GLOBE in Croatia
The main event, which is a student conference and competition in once is organized by the Education and Teacher Training Agency in May each year as a highlight for the GLOBE community in Croatia. This year it was 39 schools that were selected at regional conferences. Schools were ranked based on data reporting, quality of student research project (including use of the data) and also based on other activities, such as community event, media reports and joining international webinars, campaigns and collaborations.
The team prepares a presentation on their research for the national conference. The research reports are evaluated by judges and the best projects are rewarded, but not ranked. What is the most important, students have the opportunity to discuss their work with judges. This year students and teachers in audience also commented on presentations: At the end each team received comments collected from the audience as well. That way students received the feedback both from judges and their peers.
Field Survey Challenge
The other part of the event, which is very much popular, is the Field Survey. It is a fully outdoor adventure, where each school team have to locate five sites according to the map and complete the tasks given for each location. This very much proves students navigation and orienteering skills! The time needed for completion the goal is always recorded and after that converted to points. Points are also earned for correct answers to the questions at each site. The questions are mainly based on what students learned from their experience with the GLOBE Program.
The field survey is very attractive for students as the competition is not fully knowledge-oriented. In the unknown terrain and sometimes even adverse weather conditions, participants have to prove the team spirit and show excellent soft skills to get the best results.
There are two categories: One for younger students (up to 14 years) and one for secondary school level (15 to 18 years). In each of them teams are ranked based on the successful completion of the tasks and also on how fast they were able to achieve that.
As the GLOBE Country Coordinator Ms. Diana Garasic comments, they are still thinking how to make the event better: “Over last years we noticed growing competitive attitude among teams, which we do not want to support. We want to motivate students to excel and collaborate at the same time as the GLOBE Program is about collaboration, not about winners and losers.”
Student research reports from GLOBE Games are published on new Croatian GLOBE web site http://znanstvenici-amateri.hr/ .
Thanks to:
Ms. Lydia Lugar who is in charge of event organization on behalf of Education and Teacher Training Agency.
OŠ Marije Jurić Zagorke, Zagreb, the GLOBE school that was hosting the event this year.
type: globe-newsNews origin: Europe and Eurasia