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What do I want to get out of the “From Learning to Research project and the summer Institute”?
First I would like to gain more knowledge about tree phenology and apply it to our research on Alaska Climate using bud moisture content of Alaska paper birch buds to predict when bud burst would occur.Then provide an opportunity for my students to present their findings at the 2013 GLOBE conference.
Second, to increase my technology skill level so that I can enhance the student learning experience by allowing the students to use more tools to assist them on their research projects. ...
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I'm appreciative of the opportunity to participate in the 2012 L2R project and summer institute. This blog right now is a first for me. I've read blogs quite often but this is my first opportunity to author one. I've often thought a blog could be a great way for me to share information informally with my students. From what I've been able to ascertain, most of my students do not currently follow any blogs or participate in blogging themselves. This will be educational for both myself and my students.
I'm hoping to take advantage of all the great ...
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I am very excited to be a part of the L2R cohort, and I believe that this will be a great learning experience for me. I hope to share the information I learn with my fellow science teachers at my school. In addition, I hope to be able to collaborate and brainstorm with other teacher around the USA. Sometimes I forget that other teachers across the country are facing the same challenges that I am, and it would be great to get different perspectives and to share ideas.
By collaborating with other teachers I hope to discover new activities and ways to teach my content. Other teachers ...
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These are my thoughts on my first blog entry.
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Like most teachers, I am constantly looking for a better way to reach my students and help instill upon them a love (or at least respect) for science. This is no easy task with a bunch of 7th graders who seem to bounce off walls at times, let alone give anything 100% of their attention. I have long aspired to learn how to use a project-based learning (PBL) model in my classroom. I have family members who teach using this model and I have heard nothing but great things in terms of student engagement and achievement. It does, however, require a lot more than ...
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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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This post is the second in a series called “Trees in Trouble”. To see the first post in this series click here .
Climate impacts so many things on this planet, most notably the types of flora and fauna that live in a specific region. And for those creatures that have annual cycles tied to the local climate, such as the hibernation of bears, migration of birds, and life cycles of insects, a change in climate can shift their way of life and even have subsequent consequences on the environment they live in.
Take the pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) for ...
Many of the world’s glaciers, such as the Exit Glacier in Alaska, United States and Pasterze Glacier in Austria, have lost mass due to melting over the past few years. One such glacier, Exploradores in southern Chile, is also disappearing. This glacier is a sight to behold – a 20 kilometer frozen mass that is filled with cliffs of luminescent blue and indigo ice.
A view from inside the Exploradores Glacier, from Nature
A view from inside the Exploradores Glacier, from Nature
The Exploradores Glacier is one of many glaciers in the Patagonian Ice Fields ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
CLIMATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
Just over four years after my first visit to Australia (From drought to flood down under: Part I), the tides have turned and the country has gone from experiencing the driest decade on record to having the wettest two-year period on record in 2010-2011. These recent rains have been both a blessing and a curse. The good news is that they helped the region of southeastern Australia start to recover from the long drought (see Figure 1). The bad news is that the rains came on heavy and strong. In January 2011, devastating floods occurred across southeastern ...
A fun and easy way to be involved in the Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC) is by participating in the Climate and Land Cover (CLC) Intensive Observing Period (IOP). This quarterly IOP focuses on documenting and uploading land cover data into the GLOBE database. Scientists are then able to use these data to validate land cover in climate models. Knowing the right type of land cover is important to climate models, because it plays a role in both the energy and hydrologic cycles. For example, land cover plays an important role in how much solar energy is ...
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All over the United States, spring flowers such as daffodils and crocuses began blooming nearly a month ago due to an unseasonably warm winter. Some of my friends from many parts of the country have been mentioning how beautiful their gardens are and enjoying the warm weather. Even my family and friends from the Mid-Atlantic region have been sending photos showing off their beautiful home gardens.
Daffodils in bloom in late February
Many think it’s really nice to see green grass, budding trees, and flowers in bloom in late February, as it’s a spirit lift ...
One important part in the scientific inquiry process that often gets overlooked is the step to communicate and share your research findings. There are many ways that scientists share their research with each other and the community, including writing reports and publications, presenting research at conferences and meetings, and sharing their science with the community via the media. The Internet age provides a number of great new ways for us to share science information, such as with blogs, online discussion forums, webinars, and by sharing videos.
To encourage everyone ...
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In December 2007, I arrived in Australia for the first time ever. It was a critically dry period for the region, as they were in the midst of a terrible drought. Immediately upon my arrival, there were signals of a community in dire straits. Instead of advertisements for products and services, the signs in the airport were encouraging water conservation. My hotel bathroom had a message affixed to the mirror asking me to limit my shower time and water usage. The dams were drying up and many communities faced running out of water in just mere months. As ...
Welcome to my blog ....
I look forward to writing in this space about things that are relevant to GLOBE Communications. I'll share what the Program is doing and show you how to get involved in the action.
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This week we have a guest blogger, Dr. Dixon Butler. Dr. Butler was the GLOBE Chief Scientist from 1996-2003 and now works as a consultant to NASA.
Students working on GLOBE Hydrology Protocols
The general explanation of the scientific method focuses on comparing two situations that differ in only one clearly defined way. One case serves as the control while the other is the experiment. The results must be replicable as a check that the measurements were made correctly and that any other differences between the control and experiment are insignificant. This is an ...
Since the end of January 2012, Europe has been experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls. Temperatures are dropping to -40°C (-40°F) and below in Europe. The canals of Venice are freezing over (the first time since 1991) and sections of the Black Sea have frozen (the first time since 1977). And, Rome has received its first substantial snowfall since 1986.
A small boat cuts through the ice along a canal in Venice. Photo by Marco Sabadin/AFP/Getty Images
The frozen Black Sea in Ukraine (Reuters photo) ...
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Field Campaigns:
SCRC
GLOBE Science Topics:
CLIMATE CHANGE
CLIMATE
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
Communities in the Sahel region of Africa depend on trees for firewood, food, building materials, and even medicine. Anecdotal observations in this savannah climate, a transition region to the south of the Sahara Desert, have suggested the number of trees is decreasing. A recent study by a group of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley has provided scientific support indicating that trees are indeed dying and the decline is being attributed to climate change. Scientists looked at aerial photos dating back to 1954, satellite images, climate change ...
If you’ve seen the science news headlines in the past few weeks, you may have noticed stories summarizing how 2011 ranked in climate history. What is interesting is that the headlines have been a bit contradictory. For example, if you’ve read the story as reported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the headline reads “ NASA finds 2011 ninth-warmest year on record ”, which to me implies it was another record hot year given that it made the top ten list. Nonetheless, another story reported in ABS news touts that the world wasn’t quite ...
From January 22 to 26, 2012, scientists from around the world gathered for the American Meteorological Society annual meeting, which was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Scientists from the GLOBE Program stayed next to the beautiful Mississippi River.
The Mississippi River in New Orleans (photo courtesy of Dr. Donna Charlevoix)
The Mississippi River is the lifeblood of New Orleans and has so impacted the city that the city was actually developed around it. The first buildings were constructed around the river edge, which has the highest ground, and now ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
Last week’s GLOBE Scientists’ blog, “Peculiar weather – just because it sounds odd doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!” talked about inquiry-based learning. If you have a great question and decide to investigate further, how can you share your results? Sharing results is an essential part of the scientific method. If scientists didn’t share their work, how would we know what has already been done? Or what is already known? One of the best options for young scientists to share results is to participate in a science fair. Science fairs often occur in ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
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