News - United States of America
Camp Counselors Gather for GLOBE Goes to Camp Conference
Contributed by Michael Shanahan, Lead Naturalist, and Christopher Little, Director of Shady Creek Outdoor School and Event Center. This story was originally printed in a Shady Creek Outdoor School newsletter; this version is lightly edited.
From April 4 to 6, Shady Creek Outdoor School and Event Center hosted the NASA GLOBE Goes to Camp Conference, which saw participation from a diverse group including local educators, U.S. Forest Service staff, and camp directors from Oregon, Wisconsin and South Carolina, along with our very own Shady Creek team.
This spring's conference delved into a variety of key environmental protocols such as landcover, GLOBE Takes Flight, green-up/green-down, pollinators and trees. We also explored additional protocols like surface temperature, clouds/aerosols and mosquitos, showcasing how these have been integrated into Shady Creek’s own Forest, Soils and Creek Classes.
Thanks to generous support from Shady Creek and partnerships with SSAI GLOBE and the GLOBE Partnership Mini-Grant Program, we were delighted to offer this conference free of charge to all attendees. Hosting the event at Shady Creek allowed us to significantly reduce the costs typically associated with housing and dining at similar conferences. Participants also enjoyed unique experiences such as visiting the Raptor Center, engaging with Shady Creek’s night programs—including Fun Night, our Bat Skit and music sessions—as well as a morning birding and mindfulness card hike through our forest loop.
The conference provided a wonderful opportunity for participants to network and deepen their understanding of each other’s programs. We focused on crystallizing our GLOBE goals into a collaborative poster session. These posters encapsulated the insights gained at the conference and strategies for implementing these innovative ideas, which were shared during a dynamic closing session.
Since the conference, our team at Shady Creek has utilized these posters in an in-service training, brainstorming collectively on how to implement our newfound knowledge.
The goal of the GLOBE Partnership Mini-Grant Program is to support U.S. Partner activities to help achieve the GLOBE Strategic Priorities and contribute to the evaluation of the impact of GLOBE within the United States. Access the Mini-Grant Award Padlet to learn about how Partnerships that have been awarded a mini-grant are using the funding.
News origin: United States of America