Stars and STEM Stories

In September 2009, Danielle DeStaerke, Country Coordinator of France, led the annual GLOBE CALIPSO workshop in Cayenne, French Guiana. Approximately 30 teachers from France and French Guiana attended this event to present GLOBE student projects completed throughout the school year and discuss future plans for implementation of GLOBE.  >>

The eyes of the world will be on Copenhagen this week to learn about discussions and activities taking place at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference. From December 7-18, representatives from 192 countries will converge in Copenhagen for the conference, known as COP-15.  >>

On 24 September 2009, an international team of GLOBE students, educators, and scientists began their trek to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, to evaluate the evolving ecosystem of the largest freestanding mountain in the world. GLOBE Xpedition Team goals involved developing a sense of their surroundings while employing hands on research methods that would add to an expanding base of knowledge regarding temperature, permafrost, ice, and vegetation.  >>

Switzerland first joined the GLOBE program on Earth Day, 22 April 1998, and currently, 133 Swiss schools contribute a massive amount of measurements to the GLOBE database and present their research findings to audiences consisting of fellow students, school alumni, and even local dignitaries. On Friday, 30 October 2009, GLOBE Switzerland recognized the constitutional efforts of twenty six members of the GLOBE Swiss Team with an official association ceremony at the University of Berne.  >>

On14-15 May 2009, an educational workshop attended by teachers involved in environmental education in the Chilean Sixth Region took place in order to initiate activities targeted at involving community members in GLOBE. The teachers who participated in the event had long been awaiting the opportunity to attend a training workshop that would offer innovative applications of environmental education as well as tools to enhance the development of exchange networks.  >>

On 11 September 2009, the American people will observe their first annual National Day of Service and Remembrance. Through formal legislation passed in April of this year, U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized federal support for many innovative national service programs. On the National Day of Service and Remembrance, people everywhere are encouraged to engage in personal and organized service activities and reflection as a tribute to the memory of those who perished on 9-11 and to the many who rose in service in the days and months afterward.  >>

On 14 August 2009, data collected by GLOBE students reached the 20 million mark. Yes, you read that correctly! GLOBE students in 110 countries have now collected TWENTY MILLION scientific measurements in atmosphere, hydrology, soil, land cover and phenology investigations, using many different instruments: from sun photometers to soil color books, from cloud charts to hand-made clinometers, from data loggers to chemical test kits. These measurements now reside in the online GLOBE database and are actively in use by students and scientists throughout the world for significant real-world research!  >>

The GLOBE Asia – Pacific Consortium meeting took place in Agra, India on April 17th – 20th, 2009, and was attended by representatives and Country Coordinators from 9 (of 16) Asia-Pacific GLOBE countries: Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Maldives, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. This was the first meeting in the region since the GLOBE Asia-Pacific Consortium was established in the Philippines in 2007.  >>

On 24 April 2009, GLOBE students from CEI "San Ignacio Junín de los Andes" in Patagonia, Argentina, and Desert View Elementary School in New Mexico, USA, met online through Skype conferencing. Their discussion, in Spanish, was facilitated by GLOBE teachers Ana Prieto in Argentina, and Albert Álvarez Ortiz and Eduardo Colom in New Mexico, who saw the value of arranging a scientific and culture exchange based on GLOBE student research.  >>

In July and August 2009, GLOBE students from the Near East-North Africa region (Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia), together with students from Armenia, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Norway and the United States, will be involved in the Ocean for Life Project, a unique educational and cultural experience focusing on the global ocean and how it connects us all.  >>