Letter to the Community

Letter to the Community

26 October 2016

Dear Friends, 

I'm looking forward to speaking to the students of the Conference of Youth - 12 in Paraguay this coming weekend, and to the participants of the Republic of Korea's first GLOBE science fair next week in Seoul. Even if it's only through pre-recorded videos made here in the GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO), I appreciate these opportunities to connect to the members of our community.  
 
It's very gratifying to know that GLOBE events are occurring around the world all the time, and that together we carry on the valuable work of GLOBE. And speaking of togetherness, we are about to announce the location of the 2017 GLOBE Annual Meeting! We're just waiting for final signatures on our contracts, but even before the ink dries, we'll let you know. 

I'm also excited to tell you about our new upcoming Data Quality Challenge. This challenge is for anyone who enters, or has entered, data into the GLOBE database. It's a bit of housecleaning, really, but very important nonetheless. We are asking you to check the geographic coordinates of the sites you use for your data collection. If the coordinates are incorrectly recorded they can skew the relationships being analyzed in the same way as when measurement readings are falsely recorded. Our data entry system has ways of preventing erroneous data from being entered or displayed, but only you can ensure that the location of a site is correct. The Data Quality Challenge will take place from 28 November through 4 December. Look for more detailed information in next week's News Brief and on our homepage soon.

Another recent news item: on 13 October NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, and Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet signed a Letter of Intent for The GLOBE Program. This agreement establishes a new Peace Corps Partnership that will begin to engage Peace Corps volunteers in assisting with the implementation of GLOBE throughout the world. This may involve "pre-departure" GLOBE training for Peace Corp volunteers before they head out to their areas of service. I am thrilled to see this partnership come to fruition after long, but always friendly, negotiations. 
 
I am here to give you news from my side, but I also appreciate hearing from you when good things happen due to your engagement with GLOBE. For example, I was pleased to hear about the recent publication in the International Journal of Environment and Science Education that cited the work of our GLOBE friends and Partners in the Slovak and Czech Republics, Nikoleta Smoľáková, Juraj Svajda, Samuel Koróny and Jan Činčera. Their study compared the "inquiry competence" of 8th-grade students participating in GLOBE in the Czech Republic with a sample of students of the same age not participating in the program from the Slovak and Czech Republics. Results were interesting! Read the publication here. And let me know when good things happen for you with GLOBE. You'll find my email address below.

As a result of some remaining funds, the GIO is hosting another NSF Bootcamp for U.S. GLOBE Partners to be held in Boulder, Colorado, in mid-March of 2017. The Bootcamp will focus more on diversity strategies for teaching and learning GLOBE. Save the dates. More details to follow.    

In closing, I want to welcome the newest member of the Community Support Team here at the GIO. He is Jorge Arias, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. With his strong background in technology, his fluent Spanish, and his love of the outdoors, Jorge is a great addition to the Boulder office. Feel free to send your questions to help@globe.gov in Spanish now.  
 

Sincerely,

 
 
 
 
Dr. Tony Murphy  
Director, GLOBE Implementation Office
tmurphy@ucar.edu