News - United States of America
GLOBE Mission Earth Presents an Introduction to GLOBE Course
The online course “GLOBE SPARKS: Supporting Practice, Awareness, Research, and Knowledge for Science” created by GLOBE Mission Earth is now available for use by the GLOBE community. The course can be used to introduce educators to GLOBE for the first time or to deepen practice for those already familiar.
Course participants will learn how to set up an account and find eTrainings on the GLOBE website. They then discover how to use GLOBE in the research process and can complete implementation plans, lesson plans, or project plans, using templates provided.
The GLOBE SPARKS course can be used to streamline GLOBE members’ outreach and training efforts. Some ways it might be used include:
- An educator is interested in doing hands-on science with their learners but wants more information before jumping into GLOBE.
- A GLOBE community member presents at a conference and wants an easy next step to help participants learn about how GLOBE works.
- A GLOBE Trainer is offering an in-person protocol training and uses the course to introduce educators to GLOBE, providing context and saving time during the training workshop.
Course Versions
The public version of the course is easy to access and doesn’t require a license.
The facilitated version of the course is available to GLOBE members who want to track individual learner progress. This requires a Canvas license or a similar platform. Send an email to GLOBE.SPARKS@wested.org for information.
The facilitated version can provide scaffolding to guide educators through the GLOBE research process and support online discussions. It can be administered asynchronously, and the facilitator can add synchronous sessions. The team at the University of Toledo U.S. GLOBE Partnership used this model successfully over a 6-week period, with scheduled virtual sessions organized around the modules. U.S. GLOBE Partner Jodi Haney shared her syllabus, which can be found in the GLOBE SPARKS Facilitator Guide (Google docs).
Additional resources
- GLOBE SPARKS Flyer (Google docs)
- GLOBE SPARKS Facilitator Guide (Google docs); includes sample syllabus and recruitment flyer
Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to the course; their names are in the Acknowledgments tab in the course.
News origin: United States of America