11/30/2011 16:00 MST - Dr. Mekuria Argaw, member of the Science Faculty at Addis Ababa University and Country Coordinator of GLOBE in Ethiopia, recognizes the added value of GLOBE in his country's science curriculum. “Currently, we have a new education policy that requires 70 percent of higher education enrollment to be in the science fields,” writes Dr. Argaw. “This is a huge task and requires us to prepare students at the high school level with a solid science background. The standard curriculum promotes more theory than hands-on learning. GLOBE fills this gap and provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn science in a more practical manner.“
Dr. Argaw was appointed GLOBE Country Coordinator in 2007 but it was his experience at the GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE) in Cape Town, South Africa in 2008 that inspired his resolve to seeing GLOBE succeed in his country. GLEs bring the international GLOBE student community together every three or four years to present their research to an international audience of students, teachers and scientists. During the course of a week, they learn about environmental research being done all over the world by students like themselves; they establish strong friendships and they develop partnerships for future collaborations. Teachers who attend GLEs share innovative ideas and challenges, attend professional development sessions and build connections for research efforts between schools.