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GISN & STEM Professionals' Blog
The GISN and STEM Professional's Blog is an online collaborative effort where scientists associated with GLOBE post their thoughts, comments, and philosophies about a variety of science topics.
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SEES 2024 Experience
Getting the opportunity to participate in the NASA SEES Earth System
Explorers program has positively impacted my educational and career
journey in more ways than I could've imagined. Throughout this
internship, I gained an immense amount of knowledge in Earth science,
utilizing the GLOBE Observer app, ArcGIS, Collect Earth Online,
Python, and many other tools to better understand the environment
around us. During the last few weeks of the program, a team of seven
other interns and I completed our own research project called
"Harnessing ...
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Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
In this blog post, I will go through every step of the internship and
outline my experience!
Before I do that, first of all, I would like to say that I am so
happy that I got to spend my summer with SEES! This program was so
amazing and helped guide me a bit more on what I want to do in my
future career and in college! I am very grateful for all of our
mentors who guided us through the program and provided great knowledge
and support to all of us! Thank you for this opportunity.
Modules: Climate Science Background and Exploring the Earth
To prepare for the ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Student Research Reports:
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My group’s project focused on using land cover data and GLOBE
Observer images to create a machine learning model that can predict
land surface temperature - a measure of how hot the surface of the
Earth feels in a given location. For context, GLOBE is short for
“Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment”. It’s an
app that lets volunteers across the world take observations of their
local community (these could be of cloud cover, land cover, or
mosquito habitats) and these observations help scientists track
changes in the environment. It’s part of a wider ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Learning Activities:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER/BIOLOGY
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Roboflow is an open-source dataset management platform, where users
can import data, label it, and then have a model train on it. For my
group's project, CS-FLARE, we used Roboflow to label brush, grass,
trees, and leaf litter in our NESW Images as shown below.
When I initially began labeling images, I tried
using bounding boxes for each picture like the leaf litter in the
image above. This became a bit annoying as sometimes the bounding
boxes would cut parts of objects like trees, but it was still faster
than using the polygon tool to manually trace around objects. ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Adopt-a-Pixel | Where does water meet land in my community?
Scanning the Area
As our first assignment as part of the Earth System Explorers team, we've been tasked with making our first observations using the GLOBE Observer App. The goal was to make 12 total observations (6 Potential Mosquito Habitat & 6 Land Cover).
To be more efficient, I decided to make all of my observations at 6 different still bodies of water. This way I could do a MHM and a LC observation at each location.
Before I began, I scouted potential bodies of water on Global Surface Water ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
I built my mosquito traps on June 20th and ran the experiment until July 15th. I collected a total of 15 observations during this period. To construct the traps I used three identical pots to hold water. The goal of my experiment was to find which type of mosquito bait would be the most effective at attracting and sheltering mosquitos. For the three baits I used dried leaves, grass clippings, and a wooden plank. I chose these three baits because they represent possible real life environments that mosquitos may breed in. The dried leaves simulates a pool of water that does not evaporate ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
My mosquito trap was definitely a rollercoaster, and with this being the last required update, I still plan on seeing how the traps do after the internship finishes since this has been really interesting. To give some background, I set out three traps around 30-40 yards away from each other around my AOI so I could get an idea of how different areas may yield different results. The first trap was in my backyard, the second trap was in a park close to my house, and the third was by a sidewalk (the pictures I use are from the third trap). The only trap I really had to refill with water was ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Mosquito Trap
Week 1
For the mosquito traps, I decided quite early on that my independent variable would be the container. I got 3 different containers; an old tire, a black bucket, and a gallon bottle/container while keeping all other factors the same. I used the same bait and the same amount of water and placed all 3 traps in my backyard behind the shade of the t ree. I decided on using a timeframe of about 5 days to take my samples.
Week 1:
Five days had passed, and it was time to sample the traps. Unfortunately, when I got ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
BIOSPHERE
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
AOI Fieldwork
At first, collecting land cover data for 37 points within my area of interest felt like a daunting task. However, after only a few "expeditions" in the past week, I was able to complete all 37 observations.
To make my work easier and more accurate, I intentionally choose an AOI that would contain as many points as possible within a nearby park. This was to ensure that I could access as many points as possible. Despite my best efforts, many of the points still landed in residential properties. This activity actually reminded me how many neighborhoods there are in my ...
Posted in:
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My fieldwork to map land via the Globe app led me to understand where I live better. Texas is the second-largest U.S. state by both area and population. There are only four deserts in North America, and Texas is home to the Chihuahuan Desert. Texas Land Conservancy [TLC] works to conserve natural areas, protect the physical and ecological integrity of their wildlife habitat and native plant communities, and provide essential endangered species habitat. Texas boasts nearly 300 native tree species and is also home to 85 species of mosquitoes. My areas of interest (AOIs) spanned Williamson ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
MOSQUITOES
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
When you start writing your GLOBE report for IVSS , it might be difficult because you might not sure where to start. We tend to start writing the Methods section first because it is something you did it yourselves, and it should be relatively easy and straightforward to write. Second, you should write the Results section, do graphs, tables and texts (think of a best way to present your cool data to the whole world). Third, you should start writing the Introduction stating your hypotheses and predictions. The next step would be the Discussion section. It is funny to say but as ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Investigation Areas:
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
On May 1, 2021, I did a lot of things. Most of them involved staying home, logging in to Microsoft Teams for virtual school, and doing my homework. Little did I know that my life would change that very evening. I logged off from school and opened Outlook to check my email, and I saw it immediately: “Congratulations on your NASA virtual internship!”
For the next five months, I was immersed in the life of a scientist. The NASA SEES Internship pushed me to grow and improve my analytical thinking skills, from Ph.D.-level guest lectures to reading through several research papers to actually ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
News Topics:
NEWS BRIEFS
Primary Audience:
ALUMNI
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Hello! My name is Nikita A., and I am from Chicago, Illinois. I participated in the NASA SEES Internship Program during the summer of 2022 as part of the Earth System Explorers team. Our program kicked off in the first week of June with an introductory webinar that detailed the goals for the next eight weeks. For the Earth System Explorers project, our goal was to research the harm mosquitoes-borne diseases pose to public health. Every Wednesday, one of our mentors or a guest scientist would meet with us to enhance our learning. They would teach us about GLOBE Observer App data analysis ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
News Topics:
NEWS BRIEFS
Primary Audience:
ALUMNI
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My experiment aims to test how two variables impact the likelihood of mosquitoes breeding. The first variable is the water type , and I am testing with tap water, filtered water, and muddy water from a local pond. The second variable is the food in which mosquitos will breed. Therefore, I will add rice water and sugarcane juice to the three water types. So, I will end up with nine mosquito trap containers shown below. Below are what each contains: A1) filtered water mixed with rice water; A2) tap water mixed with rice water; A3) muddy water mixed with rice water. ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
In October, our SEES research team presented at the 2022 MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference (MIT URTC), becoming the first SEES team ever to be selected to present a paper at this competition. We wanted to share our experience with MIT URTC, from the starting point of our SEES research project to developing a publishable manuscript and presenting our paper at the conference.
At the onset of our research, we were motivated by a story we read in the news that detailed how human populations worldwide were becoming increasingly susceptible to vector-borne diseases, with ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
News Topics:
NEWS BRIEFS
Primary Audience:
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I have 5 identical buckets placed in shady areas around my yard. Two of these buckets (Buckets 1 and 2) are filled with equivalent amounts of water, grasses, leaves, and dirt, while another bucket (Bucket 3) contains everything but the dirt. I wanted to examine how dirtier water could attribute to a more habitable microenvironment for mosquitoes.
My two other buckets contain equivalent amounts of water and are both wrapped in black trash bags, where one (Bucket 5) contains only grasses and another (Bucket 4) contains only eucalyptus leaves. I wanted to test the effects of ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
First Post:
For my project, I wanted to see how CO2 emissions could affect mosquito activity. To do this, I set up 4 water bottle traps. 2 of the traps contained a solution of tap water (1 cup), sugar (1/4 cup), and yeast (1 gram). The yeast and the sugar react to release carbon dioxide. (Fermentation) The other two bottles contained a basic solution of tap water and grass. One bottle of each type was placed in two different AOI locations.
Brief hypothesis: If mosquitoes are naturally attracted to carbon dioxide, then the CO2 emitting trap will have greater mosquito ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
For my experiment, I decided to see which fruits or foods in general that mosquitos would be attracted to. From left to right, it was the cantaloupe, watermelon, control(which is nothing), and a pineapple in the last one. I wanted to test whether different fruits or foods affected the amount of larvae and mosquitos that are born. For the first week of testing, I did not spot anything or any mosquitoes. The biggest issue I had was the amount of ants attracted to the bottles. I also had many dead beetles and bugs dead in the trap, which did not surprise me. However, I saw some larvae but ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
For my mosquito habitat experiment, I decided to approach it from the perspective of the size of containers. I had 5 different containers, each of which is a different size, from a small bottle to a soap bottle to the largest, a gallon jug. For the first week of testing, I was able to set up the traps in their selective locations, however, was not able to check them till week the end of week 2 as I was on vacation. When I returned, I was able to bring all of the containers to my house to examine the specimens in each bottle. However, when I went to retrieve the said containers from ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
For my mosquito habitat experiment, I decided to study the depth of container. I had a large bucket, a medium bucket, and a small bucket. For the first week, I decided to add fish food, but I am thinking about adding different types of baits throughout the weeks!
Here was my original set up, with it being placed under a tree in my backyard.
Additionally, I had placed two more at different AOI. I placed both of these containers in bushes. At one AOI it was inside a tall bush, while in the other it was in the middle of a shrub. ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
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