Twenty representatives from the Asia Pacific region, consisting of Government Officials together with GLOBE Country Coordinators, Teachers, Scientists and NGO's, met in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 1-3 April 2010, to plan future student inquiry activities for the region. Countries represented from the region included Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Palau, and Thailand. Discussions included identification of the challenges and possible solutions to successful implementation of GLOBE in the Asia-Pacific region, the types of research campaigns and topics that are of interest to teachers and students in the region, and how to fit GLOBE activities and campaigns into the curriculum of science topics that students are already studying. Countries stressed the need for robust impact evaluations and assessment models to help verify the benefits of GLOBE which is essential to gaining approval for implementation within their ministries, decentralized models for implementing GLOBE in conjunction with university scientists, NGO’s and other community members has been successful.

On 1-6 June 2010, 42 representatives from 22 European countries met in Ohrid, Macedonia, to discuss regional governance, hold elections of new officers, update one another on national implementation activities and GLOBE student research underway, and begin preparation for GLOBE’s upcoming climate research events. Countries present at the meeting included Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ukraine. Guests from Kosovo, a neighboring country hoping to join GLOBE regional activities in the near future, and representatives from the GLOBE Program in the United States, were also present at the event.

United States GLOBE Teacher Bruce Huckins’ 7th grade class, at West Central Middle School in Maynard, Iowa, is conducting the second year of the Volga River Project. In 2008, Huckins’ class created the project by measuring the Transparency, Nitrate, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, and Water Temperature of the Volga River four times throughout the year, beginning in November. Huckins’ current class decided to continue the project and repeat the same tests every month starting in November 2009. Since the Volga River runs through the town of Maynard, the locality of the project peaks the students’ interest in assuring the water is safe for recreational activities such as swimming and fishing. In addition to testing the water each month, students research the importance of turbidity, nitrates, pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature to water quality. The students learned, for example, that dissolved oxygen levels under 5 mg/L put stress on aquatic life and higher temperatures increase the demand for oxygen. By following GLOBE protocols and using data to generate and answer questions, the class observes how all components of the Volga River are connected.