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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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Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/10/01/xpedition-day-eight-kosovo-camp-to-special-crater-camp/
As you may have noticed, the Scientist Blog was quiet for the past two days. As is to be expected, things can change rapidly on the mountain and the ability for the team to send us their daily blogs was interrupted. The team safely continued on their journey, and have sent us their blogs.
Day Eight was Saturday, 29 September. The team journeyed from 4,877 m (16,000 ft) to 5,608 m (18,399 ft). ...
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Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/28/xpedition-day-seven-karanga-camp-to-kossovo-camp/
Today the team continues on their journey to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro by traveling from the Karanga Camp, situated at 3,962 m (12,998 ft), to the Kossovo Camp at 4,877 m (16,000 ft). This leg of the journey takes the team back to the alpine desert biome.
Part of the team stops for a photo
While this biome is found on Mt. Kilimanjaro, it is also found in many other mountain ranges, including but not limited ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/27/xpedition-day-six-lava-tower-to-karanga-camp/
A morning at camp
The team is now over halfway done with their trek to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The journey began on Sunday 23 September as the team left Basecamp and hiked to Forest Camp. You can read all about their journey starting here .
A view of Mt. Kilimanjaro from the trail
Today’s part of the trek up Kilimanjaro takes the team back down in elevation, ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/26/xpedition-day-five-moir-hut-to-lava-tower/
Today marks another transition between biomes – from heath zone to alpine desert. An alpine desert is a harsh, dry, windy region that consists of mostly bare rock and ice. Temperatures during the day can soar to 38°C, while at night can be below freezing. The air is very thin, which results in labored breathing as well as more intense solar radiation. The Lava Tower camp sits at approximately 5,029 m (16,499 ft). ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/25/xpedition-day-four-shira-1-camp-to-moir-hut/
Today the team will hike from Shira 1 Camp to Moir Hut (Shira 2 Camp on the map below). This part of the journey will take the team further into the heath zone. As discussed yesterday , the heath zone is a zone of sparse vegetation due to lower rainfall amounts.
The route the team is taking: the western approach route
The team stops for a discussion about soils
Today’s question focuses ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/24/xpedition-day-three-forest-camp-to-shira-1-camp/
Today the team heads from 2,438 m to 3,505 m above sea level. This portion of the journey will take the team from rain forest to heath zone. A rain forest is characterized by high rainfall, with annual totals ranging from 1750-2000 mm (68-78 in). A heath zone is above the forest line, where porous soils and lower rainfall result in sparser vegetation.
Leaving the rain forest heading to the heath zone ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/23/xpedition-day-two-basecamp-to-forest-camp/
Packed and ready for the journey
Today, Sunday, 23 September, the team packs up the vehicles and heads off on their journey. Their itinerary for the day includes a few hours’ drive from basecamp followed by a 3 hour hike to Forest Camp, located at 2,438 m above sea level.
Taking a quick break on the hike
The bloggers were asked the following question as they set off on their ...
Blog originally posted on The GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/22/xpedition-day-one-basecamp/
Mt. Kilimanjaro from a distance
Today marked Day 1 of The Xpedition. Before the team begins their journey through the biomes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, our bloggers were asked the following question: What are your expectations--personally and scientifically--for The Xpedition?
Maddy
My expectations are very open-ended! I don't want to get my heart set on anything because I know the mountain is ever-changing and shows us a ...
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Blog originally posted on the GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/19/students-teachers-and-scientists-explore-mt-kilimanjaro-through-globe-protocols-and-blogs/
Beginning on 23 September, five GLOBE students, teachers and scientists and one GLOBE alum will join commence on a journey through the biomes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Known as, “the Xpedidion,” the 2012 trek marks the fifth year of this exciting journey. This year will be bigger than ever as a documentary film crew will join us. In addition, we will be sharing images via ...
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Field Campaigns:
SEASONS AND BIOMES
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
CLIMATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
Blog originally posted on the GLOBE Scientists' Blog: http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/09/06/salute-to-teachers/
This week, we are taking a slightly different approach to our blog. At the highest level, our blog usually centers on science and education themes. This week, however, we are taking a step back to focus on the people who are on the front lines of teaching science and education … our teachers.
If you have ever been inspired by a great teacher––an educator who had such a profound impact on you life by taking an interest in you, sparking your ...
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Blog originally posted on the GLOBE Scientists' Blog at http://blog.globe.gov/sciblog/2012/08/28/full-circle-superior-part-ii-studying-streams/
We have a guest blogger this week. Mike Linke is posting his second blog in a series about his walk with his wife, Kate Crowley, around Lake Superior.
This is the second in a series about the science of Full Circle Superior; a walk around the world’s largest freshwater lake. You can read the first blog post here. My wife, Kate Crowley, and I determined that we would be the first couple to walk around this lake, trying ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
Learning Activities:
LAND COVER/BIOLOGY
HYDROLOGY
Cologne, Germany
We stayed in Cologne, Germany for several days. While in Cologne, we stayed with Dr. Karl Schneider, his wonderful wife Karen and children. They are always such great hosts. Their son Karl said that he played football. I assumed he meant soccer because the people in the United States are the ones that call the game soccer. The rest of the world says football. But, I was wrong. He plays American football (in Germany). That is interesting. The younger Karl was an exchange student in the United States and played on the school’s football team. Or, I should ...
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The newpaper article is below. Take a look. It was very nice of Sebastian to translate it into English.
Getting from Switzerland to Cologne, Germany
After our meeting with the teachers and student at the Alexander von Humboldt Gymnasium in Konstanz, Germany, we made our way up to Cologne, Germany so I could attend and present at the International Geographical Congress (IGC) meeting. I’ve posted pictures of the trip and the cities we visited. I included a little about each city so you can get a sense of the countryside.
Tirol Region of Austria
We started by ...
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August 19, 2012
We went to a glacier in central Switzerland. It is a tourist attraction. It was the most unsustainable tourist place I have been to in my life. Usually, at tourist places, they try to have you do things that preserve the site. In the United States at the parks, you are not allowed to take anything away. Dunes are protected at the parks that have dunes along Lake Michigan, etc. But, here, there are thousands of tourists walking on the glacier, there is a cave that they carved out of the glacier, there is even a sledding area. The sledding area may not be too bad ...
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August 16, 2012
Yesterday after we arrived in Frankfurt, we walked around the city. It is an amazing city. It is big enough that there is a lot of business but it is small enough that the streets are not clogged with cars. Maybe one of the reasons is that so many people ride bicycles. There were bikes everywhere. Sometimes the people walking have to be careful not to get run over by the bikes.
We went down to the old part of Frankfurt which is near the River Main. The old town area is very cool to visit. I found it interesting that much of the old town had to be rebuilt ...
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Tree-of-heaven ( Ailanthus altissima ) is spreading widely throughout West Virginia and threatening the native forest ecosystems in Appalachia. This invasive plant was introduced to the United States from China in the 1780s. The same exotic tree species was also introduced to Japan in 1860s but is not aggressive in this country. In Japan, particularly in the Kyushu Island, tree-of-heaven is rarely found in natural forest ecosystems but a few trees may be found growing in university campuses (i.e. Kyushu University), school premises and house backyards. Tree-of-heaven was initially ...
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Establishment and proliferation of invasive species in an environment where they were introduced is becoming a worldwide problem. During my trip to Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan in 2008 for a research fellowship, I was able to observe the same plant species that is also considered invasive in the United States. It is called the tree-of-heaven ( Ailanthus altissima ). This trip initiated a project involving a more in-depth investigation of the competitiveness of Ailanthus as an invasive plant. With the involvement of undergraduate students in the Department of Land Resources at ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Finally, I am now connected with the Globe program. Very exciting. Looking forward to getting more involved in this program.
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I'm at the 16th Annual GLOBE Partner meeting. It is a great time to meet with old friends and make new ones.
Kevin
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Sometimes, part of being a scientist is dealing with the unexpected. During research projects, scientists might get very surprising results. Or, something might happen to completely change the scope of the project. This is exactly what happened to a group of scientists in Chile . Scientists were studying how man-made armoring, such as seawalls, impact the ecology of beaches in Chile and California. They had surveyed 9 beaches in Chile when something very unexpected happened on 27 February 2010– an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit .
Seawall before and after the earthquake ...
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