News - Mission Earth

In 2022, the Urban Heat Island team at the University of Toledo and the City of Toledo started a new phase of observation and data collection at the neighborhood level with citizen scientists. This summer, the team purchased air temperature sensors, built devices to put them on cars, and drove alone on eight selected routes that covered both urban and rural areas of Toledo.   >>

Members of GLOBE Mission EARTH participated in GLOBE's annual North American Regional Meetings (NARM), only this time with a twist: the regular meeting was a 2-day virtual countrywide one, and then GME partners held in-person follow-up meetings at local venues! Check out GLOBE's story about these events here: https://www.globe.gov/web/united-states-of-america/home/news/-/newsdetail/14718/2022-narm-overview  >>

NASA SEES Program high school interns working with GLOBE Mission EARTH on their Air Quality Initiative group went to Austin, Texas for two weeks, capping off their summer-long internship with the SEES program! GME Research Assistant Sara Mierzwiak and GME Teacher Janene Smith joined them in Texas for their activities, and to continue mentoring them in their research projects on air quality. For more information about the NASA SEES Program, go here: https://www.csr.utexas.edu/sees-internship/. Check out some photos below of their experience!  >>

GLOBE Mission EARTH/University of Toledo Teacher Janene Smith just completed two weeks in Austin, Texas serving as a mentor for a group of NASA SEES Interns! Janene assisted with all of the SEES students, but worked most closely with the Air Quality Initiative (AQI) group, which included students from around the country who worked virtually before the on-site trip to Austin with Janene, Sara Mierzwiak (Research Assistant/GLOBE Mission EARTH), Dr. Margaret Pippin (NASA Langley) and Dr. Kevin Czajkowski (GME Principal Investigator) on their own independent air quality research projects. Janene was even was featured in her local newspaper for this work, as well as her other (extensive) work with GLOBE.  >>

Andy Henry and Geoff Bland from AEROKATS & ROVER Education Network (AREN) Project trained the GME-UT teachers in the use of the AquaROVER which takes water quality measurements in a water body.  >>

GME-UT connected with Upward Bound on the University of Toledo’s campus for a second year. During Summer 2022, GLOBE Mission EARTH engaged 16 high school students from the Upward Bound Program at the University of Toledo in collecting Atmosphere and Hydrosphere data from around the UT campus and the community  >>

For the second year, GME-UT host SEES students. Dr. Yitong Jiang and Olawale Oluwafemi led nine students (eight from NASA SEES Intern program and one student from University of Toledo intern program) to investigate urban heat island effect locally and globally by conducting research projects.   >>

GME-UT decided to expand their efforts in hosting another group of SEES students. Sara Mierzwiak and Janene Smith, GME Teacher, led a group of seven high school students in exploring the science of Air Quality using a variety of sources (Purple Air, Center for Disease Control, EPA, etc.).  >>

Student Symposia Hosted or Supported by GLOBE Mission EARTH! Students from across the United States presented their authentic research projects at face-to-face and virtual symposia through our NASA-funded project, GLOBE Mission Earth. For these projects, students developed research questions, collected environmental observations of their local area, analyzed the data to produce results and presented their findings. Students are encouraged to collect GLOBE data, use NASA resources and do environmental research projects.  >>

GLOBE Mission Earth connecting with the International GLOBE Community! GLOBE Mission Earth (GME) extends its reach to students in the GLOBE community whenever possible. Here are just three current examples of their work with students in England, Malta and Thailand.  >>