Last year, the 1^st Annual Student Research Exhibition (formerly the Student Science Symposium) was held in St. Paul, Minnesota in conjunction with the 16^th Annual GLOBE Partner Meeting.  After the great success of the event, the decision was made to make it an annual event in an attempt to involve GLOBE Students in the GLOBE Partner Meetings.  In May of 2013, the call for nominations for student research projects to participate in this event was sent to all GLOBE Country Coordinators and U.S. Partners in the hopes that this event would include the top research from each area.

The 2^nd Annual Student Research Exhibition event was held on Monday, 12 August, 2013 in conjunction with the 17^th Annual GLOBE Partner meeting in Hyattsville, Maryland, USA.  Ten countries participated in the one night event, which included over 70 students from all grade levels.  Those ten countries, Argentina, Croatia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, United States, and Uruguay , represented all GLOBE regions, and schools presented their research either in-person, through a poster presentation, or virtually, via either a video or PowerPoint presentation.  Additionally, each of the 33 research projects performed protocols in at least one of the 5 GLOBE investigation areas.

A student from Saudi Arabia presents her research during the 2nd Annual Student Research Exhibiton

In addition to the breadth of research topics and protocols used, students approached their research differently.  One student worked on her own to understand sea surface temperature.  There was a group of students who explored how they could harness fresh water for use at their school.  Another project was collaborative between three countries, Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay, and it explored how ENSO and human activities are affecting their land cover.  While these are just a sampling of the projects, each research team presented outstanding research to the greater GLOBE community.

All student projects were judged on pre-determined criteria by members of the GLOBE International Scientist Network.  The projects were judged on a maximum of 100 points in the areas of creative ability, use of GLOBE data, scientific expression, thoroughness, knowledge achieved and clarity.

With these criteria in mind, the following projects were the winners of the 2^nd Annual Student Research Exhibition.

In third place, representing the country of Croatia and the GLOBE Europe and Eurasia Region was the project entitled Water quality and the revitalization potential of Mrtvi Kanal Channel, studied by students at Medicinska skola u Rijeci.

Students from Medicinska skola u Rijeci stand with their teacher in front of their poster

In second place, representing the country of Thailand and the GLOBE Asia and Pacific Region was the project entitled Measured concentration of nitrate in water from the bulb of Wetland plan Nepnthes in Bung Khong Long, Thailand, studied by students at Bung Khong Long Wittayakom School.

Students from Bung Khong Long Wittayakom school accept their second place award with their teacher

And in first place, representing the country of the United States and the GLOBE North America Region was the project entitled Correlations between vernal pool phenology and a breeding population of Bufo americanus in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, studied by students at Crestwood High School.  You can read a summary of this winning project here.

Students from Crestwood High School show off their award with GLOBE Program Office Scientist Jessica Mackaro

The GLOBE Program would like to extend a big thank you to all of the scientists, teachers and students who were involved in this fantastic event.

If you’ve been performing research, you don’t need to wait for the Virtual Student Conference or the Student Research Exhibition to share your research with the GLOBE Community.  You can submit projects year round through the “Tell Us About It” link on your school’s page.  Additionally, if you’re a scientist who would like to be involved in The GLOBE Program, be sure to visit the GLOBE International Scientist Network page to find out more information.

The Student Climate Research Campaign, which began in September of 2011, aimed to do just that.  Through the campaign, students became engaged in measuring, investigating, and understanding their local environments.  GLOBE students who have been participating in the campaign are diligent in uploading their data to the GLOBE database and have been using that data to plan and carry out exciting research projects to explore their environments.

The 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference, occurring from 06-31 May 2013, was the place for GLOBE students of all grade levels to showcase the research they have been performing through the Student Climate Research Campaign.  58 projects from 4 countries (Argentina, Madagascar, Thailand and the United States) were submitted to the conference.  Scientists from the GLOBE International Scientist Network  scored the projects using a modified Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Evaluation Criteria to determine an overall winner, as well as winners for each region that participated.

The overall winner of the 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference was Ms. Marcy Burns’ fifth grade students from Main Street Intermediate School in Norwalk, Ohio, U.S.A.  These students discovered that over the past thirty years, the average annual precipitation in their town has increased. Because of this, they hypothesized that runoff would have a negative effect on the water in the stream. Water samples were collected on the east and west sides of Norwalk, Ohio, for four weeks and tested for pH, nitrate-nitrogen, and conductivity. After looking carefully at the data, they concluded that pH and nitrate-nitrogen were not affected very much by runoff, but conductivity increased after the roads were salted.  The students felt that additional testing during all seasons would be needed to completely understand the relationship between runoff and water quality.  You can read their report on the GLOBE website and watch their project video below.

Congratulations to the students from Main Street Intermediate School for a wonderful project.  To see the winners from the participating regions, visit the Winning Projects page on the GLOBE website.  Additionally, all projects are still available for viewing.  You can browse through the projects on the 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference page.

Suggested Activity: Please be sure to visit The GLOBE Scientists’ Blog next week as we explore the second piece in this series about GLOBE students presenting their research at the 2^nd Annual Student Research Exhibition, which occurred in conjunction with the 17^th Annual GLOBE Partner Meeting on 12 and 13 August 2013 in Hyattsville, Maryland, U.S.A.

The overall winner for the competition comes from Kingsburg High School in Kingsburg, California, USA.

The winners, broken down by region are (click on the school’s name to open up the video in a different window):

Africa: Ilboru High School from Arusha, Tanzania

Asia and Pacific: Donchanwittayakom School in Donchan District, Thailand

Europe and Eurasia: SIES Vega de San Mateo from Islas Canarias, España

Latin America and Caribbean: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento from Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina

Near East and North Africa: The 25th Secondary Girls School at Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah from Al-Madinah Al-Monawarah, Saudi Arabia

North America: Madison Plains High School from London, Ohio

We really enjoyed seeing all of the wonderful videos created by our GLOBE students.  Please be sure to visit our Facebook page or our playlist on our YouTube Channel to see more videos from the competition, including second and third place winners from each region.

Suggested Activity: What did you think of these videos?  Let us know here through a comment, on our Facebook page, or on the video directly!