The Summer 2022 NASA SEES Internship program was a memorable one for the GLOBE Mission EARTH (GME) Team! The 6-week period of hard work, commitment, and dedication by all members led to creative and outstanding research projects from both the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) and the Air Quality Initiative (AQI) Teams. The wide geographical spread of the NASA SEES students allows them to take observations using different GLOBE protocols across the United States.
The AQI Team led by GLOBE Mission EARTH Research Assistant Sara Mierzwiak and GME Teacher Janene Smith mentored a group of 7 high school students in exploring the science of Air Quality using different educational resources (Purple Air, Center for Disease Control, EPA, GLOBE, etc.). Students were mentored and inspired in several areas of conducting independent research. Students were invited to the University of Toledo’s ArcGIS Online account, through which they created ArcGIS Online Storymaps of their research projects. The last two weeks of the internship were in-person in Austin, Texas at the Center for Space Research (CSR). A photo album of their on-site activities can be viewed here: https://utexas.box.com/s/6str15tfkfzwgisxxlm1qqq8h7gw9b9b
Figure 1: AQI Team at Austin, Texas
For the UHIE Team led by Dr. Yitong and Femi, eight students selected from the NASA SEES internship program (and one student from the University of Toledo intern program) were mentored and guided to investigate the UHIE in both their local environments and globally by conducting individual and group GLOBE-related projects.
Figure 2: UHIE Team. Screenshot of one of their virtual meetings.
It is interesting to know that most of these students will be presenting at AGU 2022 Conference under the Bright Star theme, and I look forward to their presentations at the Chicago conference in Dec. 2022.
