Letter to the Community

Dear Friends,
 
This is very busy time at the GLOBE Implementation Office and I want to alert you to some of the high points over the next few weeks.

First up: The 2016 GLOBE International Virtual Science Fair is in full swing and projects are currently coming in. We are looking forward to receiving projects from all GLOBE countries. It's not too late to participate and you have a few more days to submit your entry. Here are the dates you'll want to be aware of: 

• 11 March 2016 -- Deadline for student reports is this Friday, end of day.
• 3 - 9 April 2016 -- Students respond to comments from judges and peers.
• 22 April 2016 - Earth Day! Badges will be awarded and importantly, a drawing will take place to determine which project entries will receive a stipend to defray the cost of attending the GLOBE Annual Meeting in Colorado, in July.

Find everything you need to know on the GLOBE website International Virtual Science Fair page. Go straight to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), here.

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Please note the new dates of The 2016 Annual Meeting in Estes Park, Colorado: 16 - 21 July.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have had to move the Annual Meeting up one day. This year, the event will begin on the evening of Saturday 16 July and will close at mid-day on Thursday, 21 July. Now that we have resolved the scheduling issue, the Annual Meeting webpage and registration site are ready for you. Make plans to join us in Estes Park, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains in our beautiful state of Colorado in July. Read all about, and find the link to registration here. 

Earth Day is coming: April 22!  Earth Day is always held on April 22, no matter the year, no matter the country, and is marked by leaders, citizens, organizations, companies, and agencies coming together to celebrate planet Earth. Earth Day is always a special day that represents the future for generations to come and keeping the environment we all occupy healthy and sustainable.

Here, at the GLOBE Implementation Office in Boulder, Colorado, we'll be hosting a number of events in celebration of Earth Day.

• During the week surrounding Earth Day, we will host the 2016 Data Entry Challenge. We want to see the numbers on data entry skyrocket that week... so plan to enter new data or old. The GLOBE Implementation Office will recognize schools entering the most data as well as the schools that have entered the most data using the mobile app for data collection and entry during Earth Week (17-24 April).
• Also, on Earth Day 2016, we'll be holding another Earth Day Google Hangout. The Regional Desk Officers will report on GLOBE in their regions. At the conclusion of the regional presentations, we'll hold a drawing to select (from all qualified student projects in the International Virtual Science Fair) those who will receive monetary stipends to attend the next big GLOBE international gathering, the 20th GLOBE Annual Meeting to be held 16 - 21 July in Colorado. Plan to participate in to GLOBE's Earth Day Google Hangout, or see the archived version, which will be posted later the same day. You'll find instructions about how to tune in to the Google Hangout on the GLOBE website homepage, during the week of April 17.
• We're hoping to be able to announce a special education development on Earth Day, something we have been working on in response to requests from the community, something in the final stages of development. We are aiming to unveil this to you on Earth Day. So stay tuned for this surprise.

New opportunities to access the GLOBE viz in Spanish! In an effort to expand the language capabilities of the GLOBE website, GIO and Raytheon Web Solutions are pleased to announce that both the GLOBE viz system and the Advanced Data Access Tool are now available in Spanish! Read all about it at http://www.globe.gov/news-events/globe-news/newsdetail/globe/globe-expands-language-translations  

Latest NASA satellite missions to involve GLOBE students: GOES-R! and the GLOBE Weather Watchers Project. The Global Weather Watchers K-14 project will add another collaborative project to GLOBE classrooms, a chance to develop content, collaborate in data collection, conduct joint investigations, and learn from each other the variations of weather around the world. Through these types of activities students will learn firsthand the connectedness of global weather patterns and global transport systems.  Learn how to become involved at http://www.globe.gov/web/goesr/overview/how-to-participate

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In closing, I would like to mention something quite remarkable that happened last week: NASA astronaut and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth on Tuesday, 1 March 2016, after a historic 340-day days in space, one of the most ambitious missions in the history of the International Space Station (ISS). During the record-setting one-year mission, the station crew conducted almost 400 investigations. The International Space Station has been continuously occupied since November 2000 during which time 83 countries have taken part in more than 1,700 experiments and educational efforts on this world-class laboratory in space. 
 
I find this very inspiring, don't you? In a way, the ISS is a metaphor for The GLOBE Program, where participants from all over the world come to engage in educational activities and experiments that have the potential to make valuable contributions to our understanding of science and our world.

True to our NASA roots, we are launching many new opportunities for you to become involved in GLOBE. As the saying goes, "Every journey begins with a first step." I hope you will find some activity of interest here in my letter, and take that first step to become involved with something new at GLOBE.