Stars and STEM Stories
Badger Road Elementary, North Pole, AK, United States
With a brief growing season, a widely-changing solar noon, extreme temperatures, and many discreet microclimates, Alaska can be an interesting but challenging place to make GLOBE measurements and observations. GLOBE Students at the Badger Road School in North Pole, AK are rising to the challenge.
"Our children are doing real science. They're making accurate and complex calculations," says GLOBE Teacher Cherie Stihler. "I have students who beg to be observers, calculators and reporters." Ms. Stihler has found that students who had never before taken an interest in math or science now look forward to their GLOBE activities and are taking their scientific responsibilities very seriously.
"I wish you could have been there the day my students first saw the visualization map with ... our cloud cover data for the first day we reported," Ms. Stihler says. "There was a great deal of jumping around ... and hollering, 'that's our data!'"
With such great variability in conditions, the students have learned the importance of reporting meta data with their observations. They have also determined that extremely low temperatures can affect the accuracy of their instruments. The students plan to begin making soil measurements as soon as the ice thaws. "Our snow board is currently frozen to the roof - we hope to chip it free soon," Ms. Stilher reported.
Learn more about Badger Road School by visiting their website at: http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/
3 March 2000