News - Mission Earth
GLOBE Kids Club! Spring 2021! GME at the University of Toledo Reaches out to Elementary Students in an Online Afterschool Pilot Program
GLOBE Kids Club!
GME at the University of Toledo Reaches out to Elementary Students in an Online Afterschool Pilot Program
GLOBE Mission Earth (GME) engaged over 20 students from grades 3-5 in an online Kids Club on Wednesday afternoons in April and May for six weeks in a pilot program of Kids Club. Student participants were from varied locations Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. The geographic spread of the students highlighted the differences in clouds and budburst from south to north throughout the spring.
A GLOBE Kids Club Toolkit was sent to each student. It contained GLOBE’s What’s up in the Atmosphere, Cloud chart, science notebook and materials to participate in activities. Students shared about themselves to the group in an entry “All about Me” in their science notebooks. Students observed clouds, budburst, and tree height using GLOBE protocols and entered the data in their science notebooks. Parents were asked to share photos of their children in a shared Google Photo Album. At each meeting, students shared their findings.
This was a collaborative effort among University of Toledo (Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, Sara Mierzwiak, and Janet Struble), elementary education specialist Dr. Evangeline Harris-Stefanakis, and NASA Langley Principal Investigator Jessica Taylor.
At the beginning of the sessions, Jessica Taylor engaged students with a “Clouds Dance.” Dr. C (Czajkowski) showcased images of cloud types and sky color with his cloud identifications slides. In later sessions, students observed budburst of the trees in their location. Students observed that bud burst occurred first in Virginia and last in northern Michigan. Dr. Harris-Stefanakis encouraged students to record observations through drawings in their science notebooks. Students showed their work during each Kids Club session. Brian Campbell, an outreach specialist, was a featured speaker and shared information about NASA’s ICESat-2 Mission. He described how satellites collect data on tree height and he congratulated the students on their accomplishments.
The Kids Club was developed to reach younger students outside the school setting during the time of COVID. GME Teachers informed parents of their students about this opportunity to give students an opportunity to learn science outside of school.
Link to photo album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5yGJfM5B569R6YZ1A