News - NASA Langley Research Center
GLOBE in Afterschool
NASA educators taught teachers from across the country how to make cloud observations and surface temperature measurements during the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) training workshop Nov. 1-2 at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
The workshop was part of an interagency agreement between NASA and the Department of Education to provide NASA content to teachers and the US Department of Education’s afterschool program, 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC).
In years past, the Department of Education has offered NASA content for the 21st CCLC program through NASA’s engineering design challenge at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The program is still offering engineering but wanted to offer a science focus through the GLOBE training workshop at NASA Langley.
Educators at NASA Langley developed a curriculum for the GLOBE training that focused on collecting cloud and surface temperature measurements to better understand how clouds impact Earth’s energy budget.
During the workshop, teachers learned activities that show children how materials heat up and cool down, how to identify visual opacity, and how to recognize a cloudy sky versus a clear sky.
“The teachers are very receptive and excited about what they are bringing back to students,” said Tina Harte, science education team lead for Science Systems and Applications at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
When they go back to their schools, teachers will participate in an eight-week 21st CCLC GLOBE atmosphere investigation. Tailored for a middle school audience, the 21st CCLC GLOBE atmosphere investigation teaches students hands-on learning activities developed in a sequence, so that students may actually develop content to ask questions and conduct investigations.
“It’s a wonderful learning opportunity for the kids that basically falls in line with what the 21st century is about — non-traditional, hands-on, kinesthetic learning,” said Anthony Tyler, program administrator for 21st CCLC federal programs for Newport News Public Schools. Kinesthetic learning is a type of learning in which students carry out physical activities instead of idly listening.
Teachers will return to their classrooms GLOBE certified and ready to teach a new wave of citizen scientists.
MaryAnn Jackson
NASA Langley Research Center
Last Updated: Nov. 15, 2016
Editor: Joe Atkinson
Full article at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/teachers-visit-nasa-langley-for-science-training-as-part-of-interagency-workshop
GLOBE 21CCLC Resources available at: https://y4y.ed.gov/stemchallenge/nasa/atmospheric-science-investigation/1729
type: globe-newsNews origin: NASA Langley Research Center