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GISN & STEM Professionals' Blog

The GLOBE International STEM Network (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.

GLOBE strongly encourages positive and productive discussions to further advance the scientific understanding of all involved with The GLOBE Program.
 


 

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Posted in: Curriculum: SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY STEM   Field Campaigns: SEASONS AND BIOMES CARBON CYCLE SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Mission Earth News: GENERAL ACTIVITIES   GLOBE Science Topics: BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE CHANGE GLOBE PROTOCOLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE SCIENTIST SKILLS   Learning Activities: LAND COVER/BIOLOGY


The first time I have ever witnessed a solar eclipse was on March 29, 2006, in the southwestern part of Nigeria. As an undergraduate student who majored in Geography, I was curious to know how the celestial event would happen. Indeed, I was able to witness the partial solar eclipse which was an awe-inspiring celestial event, but was not opportune to study the effect of the unique phenomena on my local environment. When I read online late last year that the total solar eclipse will pass through Toledo, Ohio in the United States where I reside presently, I thought this might be a rare ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM   Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN): GLOBE INTERNATIONAL STEM NETWORK (GISN)   GLOBE Mission Earth News: STUDENT RESEARCH & ACTIVITIES   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   Primary Audience: SCIENTISTS STUDENTS TEACHERS   Student Research Reports: MISSION EARTH REPORT


The urban heat island intensive observation period (IOP) this October yielded about 25% more observations than last year. I only look at surface temperature observations since that is the protocol that I developed (with help from others) and there are many other air temperature and cloud observations in the GLOBE database that are not part of the urban heat island IOP. This October there were a total of 2353 surface temperature observations made by 115 schools. This underscores the commitment of participating schools in contributing valuable insights into surface temperature variations. ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Science Topics: CLIMATE   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE


A video of me talking about the IOP is here: https://youtu.be/gAwHjoCJNe0 The GLOBE October Intensive Observation Period (IOP) for urban heat island had great data collecting from around the world. Data was collected by students at over 70 schools and 1471 observations of surface temperatures wee taken. A list of all of the schools is listed below. Here is a map and a picture from Earth Heart Farms near Oak Harbor, OH. Students took field trips to the farm and learned about conservation efforts. The took urban heat island observations.    You will see in the ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM   Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE


                                           My involvement in the Stem Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) program started sometime around early spring 2021. The involvement was preceded by a strong recommendation from Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, PI, GLOBE Mission Earth, The University of Toledo. Indeed, to me as a member of the GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN), my participation in SEES became an opportunity to invoke the GISN mandate which includes to mentor and inspiring ...


Posted in: Curriculum: ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY STEM   Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION   Field Campaigns: WATERSHEDS SMAP SURFACE TEMPERATURE GPM   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE HYDROSPHERE PEDOSPHERE (SOIL) BIOSPHERE   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS STUDENTS


In the Toledo area, Dr. C and schools in the area focused on studying artificial turf versus grass soccer and football fields. Artificial turf was much warmer than natural grass. This is combining the GLOBE Urban Heat Island Field Study with research by Vasco Mantas from the University of Coimbra in Portugal and George Xian from the USGS Eros Data Center and the AREN Project with Andy Henry and Geoff Bland. University of Toledo students using the AREN TerraROVER on the UT football field. You can see that the artificial turf of the football field (called the Glass Bowl) and the ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   Investigation Areas: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   Student Research Reports: U.S. STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIA (SRS) MISSION EARTH REPORT


It snowed at my house in Michigan last week, the first week of December 2020. I love snow and I really like to see how snow affects the surface temperature. Between 60 and 80 mm of snow was on the ground. I took surface temperature observations as part of the Urban Heat Island Student Research Campaign. I wanted to show what you could do by yourself at your house if you have an infrared thermometer. My two sites are my backyard which is grass and the gravel driveway in the front of our house. The backyard has a line of Black Spruce trees just south of where I am standing in the ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE


Even with the pandemic, participation the campaign has been good. Although the number of schools participating and the total number of observations was down from last year, it was still a nice number of each. So far this fall (Northern Hemisphere) spring (Southern Hemisphere) there have been over 3,500 observations from 135 sites (70 schools) across the world. Please see the list below. There are a number of schools in Saudi Arabia with over 100 observations. We also have observations from Brazil and an area of India where there are six new schools taking part in the urban heat island ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE


It is here! The Urban Heat Island Effect/Surface Temperature Campaign for 2018-2019 will start October 1. I am so excited to be kicking off a new campaign. There are so many more schools and students participating that it is very exciting. The Urban Heat Island is a very current and timely research topic to study. This past summer there were heat waves in Japan, the United Kingdom and Europe as well as parts of the United States. Heat waves are now the natural disasters causing the most deaths in the United States. Urban Heat Island Effect makes cities even warmer than surrounding ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE


In GLOBE, there are two major perspectives on the global environment – the spheres and the Earth system. The Teacher’s Guide and the new sphere pages build on the approach that examines Earth as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere. The study of Earth System Science focuses on the cycles that connect the spheres – the Energy, Water, and Biogeochemical. The Honor Roll provides recognition of those who report in depth in one area or another. There are three honor rolls recognizing Atmosphere measurement reporting; one for Hydrosphere;, and two each for Biosphere and ...


Posted in: Curriculum: SCIENCE AND MATH   Field Campaigns: EL NIÑO SMAP SURFACE TEMPERATURE GPM CARBON CYCLE   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH AS A SYSTEM EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE


I just updated HoloGLOBE to v1.0.2. For those of you new to this app, HoloGLOBE brings NASA and NOAA visualizations of the Earth to the palm of your hand through augmented reality (AR). You can read more about the app here: http://www.palmyracove.org/InstituteforEarthObservations/HoloGLOBE.aspx In this latest release, I have added play/pause functionality to the MyNASAData module. The MyNASAData is essentially an augmented reality version of GLOBE's Earth System Poster. In addition the new ICESat-2 module has been added. The ICESat-2 module was built by Emme Wiederhold, a ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION EDUCATION RESEARCH LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC) GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS OTHER SCIENCE SYMPOSIA AND FAIRS MEETINGS WORKSHOPS COMPETITIONS   Field Campaigns: SCRC - PHASE 2 SCRC FLEXE CARBON CYCLE WATERSHEDS SEASONS AND BIOMES SCUBANAUTS EL NIÑO GGIC SCRC - PHASE 1 SMAP SURFACE TEMPERATURE GPM   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE @ES CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED BACKYARD SCIENCE MEETINGS/CONFERENCES CLIMATE SCIENTIST SKILLS EARTH AS A SYSTEM GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EVALUATION WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP EDUCATION WORKING GROUP TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: BIOSPHERE ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM HYDROSPHERE PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE LAND COVER/BIOLOGY HYDROLOGY SOIL   News Topics: VIRTUAL SCIENCE FAIR IOPS REGIONS CALENDAR SCRC RESEARCH TRAINING COMPETITIONS MEETINGS VIDEO WEB MAINTENANCE / ENHANCEMENTS   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS   Teacher's Guide: GRADE LEVELS DOCUMENT TYPES TIME REQUIREMENTS LANGUAGES STANDARDS REQUIREMENTS INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


This has been a great year for the Urban Heat Island/Surface Temperature Student Research Campaign. More schools and more students have participated than ever before. I posted a 7 minute "Thank You" video here on https://youtu.be/QPfmAbMrwE4 Youtube. Urban Heat Island is a growing issue worldwide. More than 50% of the population of the world lives in urban areas. Much of this growth has been in developing. I went to research presentations about UHI at the American Association of Geography (AAG) meeting in New Orleans this week. There were many talks about UHI and using satellite imagery ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE


The Surface Temperature Field Campaign has come to a close, but please feel free to keep taking surface temperature observations. I know that many of you and your students are still taking observations and you are planning your projects to present at science fairs as well as the GLOBE regional science fairs. The Surface Temperature field campaign ran through the first day of winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, the official first day of winter is December 22 this year and in the Southern Hemisphere, it was the first day of summer . The start of the seasons are actually defined in ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP


This second week of the surface temperature field campaign has seem probably the warmest temperatures that we have seen in any field campaign in the eastern United States. I was at Ida Middle School in Michigan yesterday and the kids were outside in short sleeve shirts. The student was a little cold but it wasn’t terrible. Some years there is 200 mm of snow on the ground. We have had 26 schools, 8 countries and 9 US states enter 414 observations. Roswell-Kent Middle School is leading the pack with 83 observations. Main Street School in Ohio and Crestwood High School in Michigan are ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP


We have had a great start to our 2015 Surface Temperature Field Campaign. We are off to a quick start with 16 schools reporting since December 1, 2015. There are a number of other schools that collected data in November. I hope they are able to collect observations in December as well. Since November 1, 8 countries have reported data and 5 states within the United States. If we look at the number of observations since December 1, Main Street School in Norwalk, Ohio has the most observations. Below, I’ll talk about how El Nino is affecting the temperatures in the United States. I noticed ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP


December 1 to December 31, 2015 The GLOBE Program will host the annual surface temperature field campaign from December 1 to December 31, 2015.  This is a great opportunity to work as a community with schools around the world on a common research project. Students have used the surface temperature field campaign data to do research projects from fourth grade up to graduate students at universities. One of my graduate students published her masters thesis and found that a strong warming due to urban areas is observable in the student data. It is my hope that continued expansion ...


Posted in: Field Campaigns: SURFACE TEMPERATURE   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP