Stars and STEM Stories

At Norfork Elementary School in Norfork, Arkansas, Wade Geery, a trained GLOBE teacher, and his sixth grade students are anxiously waiting for the arrival of the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird, on the birds' spring migration path from Central America to Canada. The students have been collecting data on the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds for the past two years: observing the first arrival dates of each gender, noting the relative number of hummingbirds throughout each season, observing what flowers the birds visit and noting the departure date of the last hummingbird in the birds' fall migration to Central America.  >>

On 19 April 2007, a pre-Earth Day video conference event took place in Tel Aviv, Israel. The goal of the event, according to Mr. Farid Hamdan, GLOBE Israel Country Coordinator, was to deepen the understanding of the GLOBE Program among Israeli elementary and secondary school teachers from all ethnic and religious backgrounds — Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Bedouin; to initiate Earth Day 2007 activities in Israel; and to strengthen national GLOBE implementation.  >>

GLOBE Partner Michael Odell, from the University of Texas at Tyler, led GLOBE activities in the Camp Tyler Earth Day 2007 Event in Tyler, Texas. Preservice students from the UT-Tyler teacher preparation program led children and parents through some of the GLOBE biometry protocols. Children learned how to make a simple clinometer and measured the heights of trees. Over 300 children and parents attended the event.  >>

GLOBE had a strong presence at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) annual conference 28 - 31 March 2007. Major activities included NSTA International Science Education Day, the GLOBE North America Regional Meeting, GLOBE representation in the NASA and UCAR Booths, the annual GLOBE Community Reception and many presentations by the GLOBE community.  >>

Since the beginning of time, proximity to water has been essential to the birth, growth and spread of civilizations. Rivers, in particular, have spawned the growth of communities as sources of irrigation and channels of trade. Rivers often appear in the world's religious traditions for their mythic qualities, nourishing, cleansing, and sustaining life on their banks. In India, rivers are considered sacred.  >>

In Charleston, Arkansas, there have been ongoing drought conditions for the past several years. Unfortunately, city planners did not have the data needed to address the drought situation. Gloria Eiland, a teacher at Charleston Elementary wrote, "As our city water supply fell to an all- time low, the community started asking questions that only the GLOBE students could answer."  >>

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) hosted the first national conference of GLOBE Teachers from November 15 to 17. The conference coincided with the 10th anniversary of the GLOBE program in Mexico and honored the work of Guadalupe Pardo as GLOBE Coordinator during the administration of President Fox (2000-2006).  >>

The seed of an idea to initiate a transcontinental student exchange project to examine the role of GLOBE across a wide spectrum of schools in Europe and Africa was planted at the GLOBE Annual Conference in Prague in 2005. The aim was to provide opportunities for university students having longstanding experience with GLOBE to share their expertise with students in other countries and to learn about the issues and resources in the countries visited.  >>