News - NASA Langley Research Center

Feb-2015 Letter-to-the-Community  >>

February 2015 News Brief  >>

About 30 educators, including some from as far away as Boston and Monterey, Calif., gathered at NASA's Langley Research Center Feb. 24-25 to sharpen techniques for teaching environmental science to youngsters. At the Elementary GLOBE Partner Workshop held at Langley, they compared notes, reviewed materials and refined skills. "We're working to build a community of practice," said Becca Hatheway, who develops educational materials for University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "We want to share ideas and support the people doing this work." GLOBE stands for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment. The program is a worldwide, hands-on, primary and secondary school-based science education effort. It draws strength from partner organizations including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation. NASA Langley has been a GLOBE partner since 2003. Jessica Taylor of the NASA Langley Science Directorate helped host the workshop. She said it was intended to empower those who train the teachers who implement the GLOBE program. "We do teacher trainings fairly often, but this is more like a ‘train the trainer' program," Taylor said. GLOBE provides free educational resources, including a series of children's storybooks to help elementary school students understand Earth system science concepts. Dave Young, director of Langley's Science Directorate, stopped by the workshop to welcome the educators. "We really value what you do," he said. "Part of our mission is getting our message to the youth so we can have that next generation of scientists."  >>

GLOBE invites you to learn about the GLOBE International Scientist Network (GISN)! Register now for upcoming webinars, and access completed webinars, in the five-part GISN Webinar series.  >>

The registration site is now open. Don't miss the most exciting GLOBE gathering of 2015.  >>

The GLOBE website will be read only from 10-13 April. Please make a note of this and make accommodations as you will not be able to log in to the website during this time frame.  >>

Details and documents can be found here.  >>

GLOBE schools from the Europe and Eurasia Region contributed by more than 600 hundred photos that captured their best moments with GLOBE showing their work, GLOBE study sites and their local environment.  >>

Register to participate in the SATELLITES Conference by 1 April 2015. Area students in grades K-12 along with university students will present projects that were developed using their own inquiry-based research using geospatial technologies.  >>

NASA successfully launched the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory on 31 January at 9:22 EST (14:22 UTC). SMAP is the first Earth satellite designed to collect global observations of the vital soil moisture hidden just beneath our feet.  >>