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GISN & STEM Professional's Blog
The GLOBE International STEM Network (GISN) and STEM Professional's Blog is an online collaborative effort where scientists associated with GLOBE post their thoughts, comments, and philosophies about a variety of science topics.
GLOBE strongly encourages positive and productive discussions to further advance the scientific understanding of all involved with The GLOBE Program.
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Introduction
California is home to 53 mosquito species, including many that serve as vectors for diseases like West Nile, Malaria, and Dengue. In my county of California, Santa Clara, mosquitoes from the genus Culex and Aedes are most common. For mosquitos to keep their population flourishing, female mosquitos lay eggs in stagnant containers of water. These eggs then go through the mosquito lifecycle to reach maturity and reproduce.
Purpose
The purpose of this experiment is to determine how important stagnant water is to female mosquitos as they choose a location to lay ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Purpose: My experiment aims to test whether:
1) Ovitraps or Safe Bottle Traps attract more mosquitoes
2) CO2 traps or CO2 under light at night attract more mosquitoes
Background:
Studies have shown that mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide and may move towards the area with an increase in carbon dioxide. In fact, pregnant women are a feast for mosquitoes! This is due to an increase in body heat and more significant amounts of carbon dioxide. Additionally, during the day mosquitoes avoid light and prefer shady areas. However, without sunlight, mosquitoes ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My experiment is testing the effect various types of bait have Mosquito Habitation. My research consists of three five gallon buckets, all filled with equal amounts of water and placed under shade. Each of my buckets has a different type of bait (dirt, leaves, and wood chips). Each week I take out any larvae I see and refill the traps to the 9 inch mark (to keep the water level constant each week). I do not refill the bait. Each week I take a sample of each trap, collecting all the larvae I can see and count the medium/large larvae.
Week 2: The trap with dirt had about 250 medium/large ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I set up four traps in my back yard each one has the exact same bait but each one is a different size. The bait that I used for my mosquito traps is dog chow that was fermented for a few days.
The first trap that I set up was a small plastic water bottle cut in half then I placed the bait, then the wooden stick but the first trap was a complete failure since my dog ate everything inside the plastic water bottle.
For the second trap I used a bigger water bottle this was half a gallon and I put it in a place where my dog could not get it but when I checked back on this trap ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Firstly, my first week wasn't the most successful; I placed 2 buckets around my AOI, but wasn't able to get a third down. I walked in one business and asked if I could use the land in the back. They said they would give me a call when they could... never got that call through the week. I also called a church in my AOI and, again, they would call me back. No call. Lastly, I tried my elementary school since it was in my AOI, but I haven't gotten an email back (understandable as school was over). I tried to look at the bright side of things as I was able to get 2 buckets down. ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I'm going to share my experiences conducting a mosquito trap experiment in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout the summer, I will have 4 mosquito traps set up in my backyard, each baited with different substances, but otherwise identical. The goal of this controlled experiment is to see what type of bait is most successful at attracting adult female mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
Week 1 of Mosquito Trap Experiment (Week of June 21):
I set up my mosquito traps around June 13, but unfortunately I had some issues right off the bat. We had some windy days here in Cleveland, ...
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Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
My mosquito trap experiment is testing the effects of different kinds of bait and locations on mosquitoes. I have set up three different traps in three different locations with three different kinds of bait.
Experiments and Hypotheses
Trap #1:
This trap is located in my backyard, which has an abundance of wasps. I know that wasps are not predators of mosquitoes, but I believe that the presence of the large wasps might disrupt the mosquitoes. The bait used in this trap was initially watermelon juice which was then switched out with sugar water. Both of these baits provide sugar, ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Hypothesis: It is expected that most mosquito larvae will be present in alkaline water with the highest pH while the least mosquito larvae in the acidic water with low pH.
Setup: 5 identical buckets were placed in a shaded area in my backyard, several meters from each other. The independent variable in this case was the pH of the water as it varied from strongly acidic to strongly alkaline. The exact values of pH used were 1, 3, 7, 10 and 12. These were achieved by adding baking soda and lemon to 500ml of distilled water. The number of larvae were observed every 5 days after which ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Setup/Procedure
In this experiment, I used four traps with four different baits as such: Concentrated Processed Sugar (Gatorade), Less Concentrated Processed Sugar (Refined Sugar Dissolved in Water), Concentrated Less Processed Sugar (Honey Dissolved in Water), Less Concentrated and Less Processed Sugar (Coconut Water). This was of course was alongside the control trap, consisting solely of tap water. I placed all five traps in the same area - underneath a tree.
And thus, I hypothesized that the trap with the concentrated and less processed sugars would attract the most ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
GENERAL SCIENCE
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
In this experiment, I will be exploring how geoposition, type of bait, and container size influence female mosquitos’ choice of where to lay their eggs.
Experimental design
There will be a total of 5 traps. Three of the traps will be positioned at a location near my house. They will be separated by a reasonable distance in the same type of environment to minimize the experimental error caused by having multiple breeding habitats in close proximity. The other two traps will be positioned in various locations in my land cover area of interest. The exact locations will be ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Introduction/Theory
For my mosquito experiment, I am testing how different kinds of bait affect the number of oviposition in my trap. Different mosquito species are attracted to different habitats, natural or artificial, some of which have been changing due to climate change. Mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal in the world because of their disease transmitting abilities, so understanding their oviposition instincts could be crucial in order to prevent further spreading of dangerous diseases such as the dengue virus, malaria, or the zika virus.
Variables ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Research Questions: My experiment ran two adjacent triads of mosquito traps aimed to explore two questions: whether the local mosquito species in my area prefer to oviposit in containers with greater surface areas of water, and whether the same mosquitoes would prefer to oviposit in particular containers with varying types of water "bait".
Data: After 5 weeks of running this experiment, I failed to capture even a single mosquito larva. I'll go into further depth as to why this might've been later on in the "Conclusion" section. Both experiments suffered from a ...
Posted in:
Curriculum:
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
During my field study, I observed that I found more mosquito larvae in dirty ditches under an open sky. Based on my observations, for my mosquito traps, the specific variables I chose to control were centered around the quality of water and trap wall materials. I made 3 traps: A deep ceramic pot with mud, water, sticks, and dead and live plants, a cut water bottle with clear water and black electrical tape wrapped around it, and a shallow, wide plastic dish filled with water and dead vegetation but relatively little other particulates.
1. Pot trap with ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I am currently testing the attractability of mosquitoes to black and white, with a control of transparent plastic. This could help us determine what clothes to dress in to avoid mosquito bites, and therefore the spread of disease, when going outside.
Materials:
Three 1 liter clear plastic containers
One 1 liter white plastic container
One 1 liter black plastic container
Five wooden sticks
Fish food
Hypothesis: Mosquitoes will hatch more larvae inside of a white conatiner than a Black container because the white stands out more in a natural environment.
I ...
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GLOBE Science Topics:
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Conclusion: Although no mosquitoes were found, this process has helped me understand the methodology of making an experiment and having to deal with hardships and setbacks. There were many potential sources of error both within the system of the experiment and with outside forces. Systematic errors could have stemmed from the trap design or location. The weather was a factor of random error. The weather varied across the duration of the experiment, sometimes drastically within a single week. The weather changes could have been counteracted with more frequent checking of the ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
I currently have four traps in operational order. Two at one of my AOIs and two in backyard that were prototypes that I've left up because they seem to be performing admirably. I My traps have been up for about a week, the prototypes were deployed a day before the other two, and I haven't seen any mosquitos or mosquito larvae. I did take care to note that I used dog food in my trap, specifically the dry kibble variant instead of ones that come in chunks or are wet. I choose dog food over decomposed plant-based organic material because I noticed that the few times I've accidentally ...
Posted in:
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
Student Research Reports:
INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM REPORT
MISSION MOSQUITO REPORT
Have you ever wondered why NASA has chosen to follow water ? NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water outside our solar system. NASA's Artemis program is examining the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending and establishing a sustainable human presence there. The answer is simple - water is key to life as we know it, including on planet Earth. Only 2.5% of the water on Earth is fresh, and only a tiny fraction of that is available for use. NASA and other space agencies’ remote sensing satellites provide vital information to ...
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
Have you heard there is a new clouds project? It is called NASA GLOBE CLOUD GAZE. It is a merger of GLOBE Clouds and The Zooniverse online citizen science platform. A one-week pacing guide is now available!
Sky photographs are one of the most requested portions of a GLOBE Clouds observation. This is because there is so much you can do with them. Photographs give scientists the opportunity to be right there with you. Details within a photograph can be used to compare with satellite data, confirm dust or haze observations, and give insight to unique cloud types like ...
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Curriculum:
SCIENCE AND MATH
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
DATA INCLUDED
GENERAL SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
Learning Activities:
ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE
News Topics:
NEWS BRIEFS
Primary Audience:
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
Background
Remote working and remote learning presented challenges to us all. As a Master Trainer in Colombia, Juan Felipe Restrepo Mesa faced and overcame his share of challenges when working with a new group of educators from rural areas. Most of the training material and the tests that need to be answered were in English. This, of course, means that citizen scientists who do not speak English were prevented from making their contributions living in those areas where GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper's contributions are essential.
Juan Felipe had to set up a MEET ...
Posted in:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
GLOBE Science Topics:
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Investigation Areas:
HYDROSPHERE
LAND COVER CLASSIFICATION
MOSQUITOES
Primary Audience:
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
Every time you take a cloud observation, the NASA GLOBE Clouds team matches your observation to satellite data. Why do we do this? Your view of clouds is from a different perspective than what is observed from a satellite. Satellites look down at clouds and see the top. When you make your observation, you are looking up towards the sky and seeing the bottom of the clouds. When there is a match, scientists then have a top-down view of clouds from a satellite and a bottom-up view from your spot. When you mix these two views together, you have a more complete picture of the sky. ...
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Curriculum:
EDUCATION RESEARCH
SCIENCE AND MATH
STEM
GLOBE Science Topics:
BACKYARD SCIENCE
CLIMATE
CLIMATE CHANGE
DATA INCLUDED
GENERAL SCIENCE
GLOBE PROTOCOLS
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
SCIENTIST SKILLS
Investigation Areas:
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH AS A SYSTEM
News Topics:
REGIONS
Primary Audience:
ALUMNI
COUNTRY COORDINATORS
PARTNERS
SCIENTISTS
STUDENTS
TEACHERS
TRAINERS
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