STEM Network Blog Intro

GISN & STEM Professional's 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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Audience : Everyone! (Students and teachers all grade levels, informal educators, and the general public) Dates : October 15, 2019 - November 15, 2019 Observations : Clouds and aerosols (dust storms, haze, smoke). Limit 10 per day. NASA is requesting your help to determine “What’s up in your Sky”. The GLOBE Clouds team wants to study differences in clouds and aerosols. The data collected during this fall challenge will be compared to results from the 2018 Spring Clouds Challenge. Help by submitting clouds, dust, haze or smoke observations ( limit of 10 per day ) to ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM EDUCATION RESEARCH LANGUAGE CULTURE AND ARTS SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC) OTHER COMPETITIONS   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE @ES CLIMATE CHANGE BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE EARTH AS A SYSTEM SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EDUCATION WORKING GROUP TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: IOPS REGIONS CALENDAR COMPETITIONS   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS   Student Research Reports: U.S. STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIA (SRS) INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT STANDARD RESEARCH REPORT   Teacher's Guide: GRADE LEVELS INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


Guest Scientist Blog by Kayla M. Thomas, McNair Scholar, Southern Nazarene University Oklahoma has experienced three major outbreaks of West Nile Virus (WNV) since its local introduction in 2002. State and local health agencies provide surveillance of mosquito-borne diseases although reduced resources and personnel limits its scope. With the addition of citizen scientists from the greater Oklahoma City, I was able to analyze ongoing mosquito observations by using NASA’s GLOBE Observer mobile app during the 2019 mosquito season. Citizen scientist participation studies have ...


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Guest Scientist Blog by Kenan Arica, NASA JPL Summer Intern Mosquitoes are vectors for diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, Rift Valley fever, West Nile virus, chikungunya and other diseases. Unfortunately, climate change is expected to make the spread of mosquito-borne diseases worse. This summer, I did some exploratory research to see if we could combine the power of GLOBE citizen science data and social media to learn about where mosquitoes are found.     This summer I worked with the GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper (MHM) data. To ensure we get the ...


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Guest Scientist Blog by Jacqueline Castellanos, NASA JPL Summer Intern My summer internship at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory exposed me to all parts of the scientific process. I went on a hike in search of mosquitoes, collected data, and I had the opportunity to teach teachers how to use the GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper. In my analysis, I learned how to work with data of varying quality and saw how environmental factors affect mosquito abundance. Most importantly, I learned that data given context and explored in meaningful ways can help us understand the problems we ...


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In the GLOBE Clouds protocol and GLOBE Observer app, you can report if your sky is “overcast” or “obscured”. But what’s the difference? Below are some tips to help! All the photographs featured were collected by observers just like you - Thank you! I found “obscured” and “overcast” very confusing at first, but when I understood what they meant, things made much more sense. Let’s start by defining them: Overcast – The sky is completely covered by clouds (cloud cover greater than 90%). This means that you will see little or no blue sky. When it’s overcast, you are looking at ...


Posted in: Curriculum: EDUCATION RESEARCH STEM SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC) GLOBE LEARNING EXPEDITIONS OTHER   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE @ES CLIMATE CHANGE BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE EARTH AS A SYSTEM SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EDUCATION WORKING GROUP TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: COMPETITIONS   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS STUDENTS TEACHERS


NASA GLOBE Clouds team with summer intern (from left to right: Tina Rogerson, Kevin Ivey, Marilé Colón Robles. The NASA GLOBE Clouds team has been delighted to have recent high school graduate Kevin Ivey this summer as our intern through NASA's Internships and Fellowships program [ link ]. Read about his experience this summer as he tackled big data!     I’m Kevin Ivey and I’ve been interning with NASA GLOBE Clouds at NASA Langley Research Center this summer. I graduated high school in June and I’ll be a first-year at the University of Virginia this ...


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 Science Topics: SCIENTIST SKILLS GENERAL SCIENCE CLIMATE   GLOBE Working Groups: SCIENCE WORKING GROUP EDUCATION WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   Primary Audience: TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS


  ¿Vives en un área que tiene tormentas de polvo atmosférico? Nos gustaría que fotografíes el evento y envíes tus fotos usando el app GLOBE Observer. ¿Ya has estado enviando datos sobre tormentas de polvo atmosférico? ¡MUCHAS GRACIAS! Ahora queremos que todos sepan que pueden enviar datos sobre estas tormentas con GLOBE Observer usando los siguientes pasos.   Conoce a los científicos Daniel Tong es un pronosticador de polvo atmosférico con el Programa Nacional de Capacidades de Pronóstico de Calidad del Aire de la NOAA y el Equipo de Ciencias ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE @ES DATA INCLUDED CLIMATE EARTH AS A SYSTEM SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EDUCATION WORKING GROUP TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: REGIONS   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS   Teacher's Guide: INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


      Left: SEES Mosquito Mapper intern Maia W. in the field, sampling a mosquito larvae habitat on a construction site in her hometown. Right: GLOBE Observer Land Cover observations collected alongside mosquito habitat identifications provide important data for analysis. Photo credit: Author. As part of our field research, SEES interns identify local potential mosquito breeding habitats. As I live in an area that is cold and rainy most of the year, I did not anticipate finding any larvae, and when I did find some, it was not in the area I expected. ...


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# 19 August 2019 Prepared by Helen Amos, helen.m.amos@nasa.gov   How to Download Dust Observations Reported through GLOBE Dust event on 10 July 2019. Photo credit: GLOBE                             Citizen scientists from around the world have been reporting dust events using the  NASA GLOBE Observer app . You can learn about  how to get involved  here. This blog offers step-by-step instructions on how to download GLOBE ...


Posted in: Curriculum: STEM SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE DATA INCLUDED BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EDUCATION WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE EARTH AS A SYSTEM   Learning Activities: EARTH AS A SYSTEM ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE   News Topics: TRAINING COMPETITIONS   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS   Teacher's Guide: INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


SEES Mosquito Mapper intern Lindsay W. in the field, sampling a mosquito larvae habitat site in her study area. Photo credit: Author. California has recently emerged from a multi-year drought, but I live at the edge of a town in the chaparral where water is typically scarce. I often travel miles by car to find potential mosquito habitats, only to find no larvae in those water sources. I eventually contacted Vector Control in hopes that they could direct me to potential breeding sites, and they sent me a few locations. As of yet, most sites I’ve visited have had water and no ...


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       Left: example larva of the genus Toxorhynchites recovered from one of the author's research traps. Right: Larval specimen of prey, Culex quinquefasciatus, for comparison. Toxorhynchites are predator larvae  and easily recognized by their unique morphology and larger size. Photo credit: Author. Toxorhynchites is part of the mosquito family (Culicidae), also known as the “elephant mosquito” and “mosquito eater” and for good reason!  These formidable larvae use their mandibles to prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes inhabiting the ...


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SEES Mosquito Mapper intern Parker L. in his lab, identifying a specimen recovered from one of his mosquito research traps. Photo credit: Author. I am fascinated at how effectively Aedes albopictus has expanded beyond its historical geographical origins in Asia, sticking its proboscis into Texas along with every continent across the globe except Antarctica.  This invasive mosquito, which serves as a vector for dengue and chikungunya, has been enormously successful in utilizing alternative breeding containers to supplement its natural oviposition sites.  In fact, it ...


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SEES Mosquito Mapper intern Thien-Nha T. in the field, documenting potential larvae habitat sites. Photo credit: Author. Before this project, I never ever imagined I would be interested in studying any type of bugs, much less mosquitoes -- my itch-causing nemesis. However, the more I realized how interconnected these bugs are with the rest of the world and even my own life, the more I saw their importance. My field experiment was designed to figure out what vegetation and color surrounding would attract the most mosquitoes. The structure and goal of the experiment were ...


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SEES Mosquito Mapper intern in the field, setting mosquito traps. Photo credit: Clara U. Something that has fascinated me in the research I have done so far is the vast impact that human activity has on the distribution of mosquito communities. Globalization and human travel are thought to be responsible for introducing many mosquito-borne diseases to unlikely areas, for example, spreading the Culex tarsalis , a vector of western equine encephalitis, to Washington State. Artificial habitats that foster mosquito breeding can develop in abandoned tires, plastic containers, and ...


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Do you live in an area that has dust storms? The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) team would like you to photograph dust events in your area and submit your photos using the  GLOBE Observer app .   Join NASA GLOBE Clouds Project Scientist, Marilé Colón Robles, to learn more about how to collect your observations and educational resources you can use with formal and informal audiences. Your observations will be used by scientists to verify satellite observations and see if their models have successfully predicted these ...


Posted in: Curriculum: EDUCATION RESEARCH SCIENCE AND MATH TECHNOLOGY   Event Topics: CAMPAIGNS AND PROJECTS (IOPS, ETC)   GLOBE Science Topics: GENERAL SCIENCE CLIMATE CHANGE DATA INCLUDED BACKYARD SCIENCE CLIMATE EARTH AS A SYSTEM SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS   GLOBE Working Groups: EDUCATION WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP   Investigation Areas: ATMOSPHERE PEDOSPHERE (SOIL)   Learning Activities: ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE SOIL   News Topics: CALENDAR TRAINING   Primary Audience: PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS   Teacher's Guide: GRADE LEVELS INVESTIGATION AREA DOCUMENTS


Dr. Caio França speaking at the Science Museum Oklahoma. Oklahoma is an ecologically diverse state in the Southern Plains region of the U.S. It is part of the central flyway for migratory birds, which makes it a sentinel location for West Nile Virus (WNV) surveillance. Why birds? Birds play a role in the WNV transmission cycle. Mosquitoes become infected with WNV when they bite an infected bird. Birds can develop high levels of the virus in their bloodstream. Because WNV is usually non-lethal in birds, birds serve as reservoir hosts. In disease ecology, there are organisms that ...


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  Do you live in an  area that has dust storms?  We would like for you to photograph the dust event and submit your photos using the GLOBE Observer app. Have you already been reporting dust storms? We noticed and what to say THANK YOU! Now we want to get the word out that anyone can report dust storms with the app following the steps below.   Watch the recorded webinar on how to submit your observations using the NASA GLOBE Observer app and learn about educational resources you can use in your classroom or in an informal setting ...


Posted in: Event Topics: OTHER   GLOBE Science Topics: EARTH AS A SYSTEM SCIENTIST SKILLS GLOBE PROTOCOLS GENERAL SCIENCE GENERAL SCIENCE @ES CLIMATE   GLOBE Working Groups: TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP SCIENCE WORKING GROUP EDUCATION WORKING GROUP   News Topics: REGIONS CALENDAR   Primary Audience: TRAINERS TEACHERS STUDENTS PARTNERS SCIENTISTS ALUMNI COUNTRY COORDINATORS


        You may have heard the news- there is an exciting challenge this summer for GLOBE Observer users! The challenge follows in the spirit of early cartographers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and you can win one of two ways. First, use GLOBE Observer to map as much land cover as possible in any GLOBE country by September 2. The top data collectors in each GLOBE region will be recognized. Or, for U.S. users, head to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail between Pittsburgh, PA and the Oregon Coast, and take Land Cover and Mosquito ...


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Our team has received several questions about what to do when mosquitoes are found in a natural habitat, such as an estuary or a wetland.  When you use the Mosquito Habitat Mapper and your mosquito observations are finally logged, you are then prompted to do Step 4, “Eliminating Mosquito Breeding Habitat. By dumping or treating water you can significantly decrease the spread of mosquitoes.” It’s important to clarify that Step 4 is referring to artificial or natural containers and human created water impoundments. Examples of water impoundments include things such as stock and ...


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I am pleased to announce that the Institute for Earth Observation’s at Palmyra Cove’s Innovation Lab is developing a virtual reality experience called Lunar Learning Expeditions that will allow visitors to explore the lunar surface. The first release models the Apollo 11 moon landing site where visitors can perform some of the early experiments as part of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP). Within virtual reality, visitors will experience a view from inside a space suit as they perform mission tasks. In-game spectator cameras will allow visitors who are waiting in ...


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