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 idea of GLOBE Games was introduced at the 1997 GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE), in Helsinki, Finland.  GLEs are student research conferences held every few years to provide GLOBE students the opportunity to present their research projects to their peers.  GLOBE Games is a three or four daylong meeting of students and teachers from GLOBE schools.  They attend in order to present their project at the students’ conference, receive news about GLOBE, share their experiences, develop new relationships, and have fun.  School delegations typically consist of four students and one or two teachers.

After its first year, GLOBE Games was restructured to include additional program components that would be of interest to both teachers and students attending the event.   These components include:

• Student’s Conference. Similar to the Student Research Exhibition, which is held during the GLOBE Annual Meeting, student projects are evaluated on predetermined criteria by a committee and then the research is presented to their peers.

Students present their research during the 2013 GLOBE Games. Photo courtesy of TEREZA Association.

• Teacher’s conference. Teachers attend a conference during which they learn new protocols or learning activities. They also share experiences on using GLOBE in the classroom and discuss plans for future collaboration.
• Public festival.  Students present activities to visiting public as well as students and teachers from other GLOBE schools on what they are doing with GLOBE at their school.  Students are given the opportunity to showcase their GLOBE projects and introduce cultural programs unique to the Czech Republic to the local community, and features rolling the inflatable globe through the streets of the town.

Students prepare for the public festival at the 2013 GLOBE Games. Photo courtesy of TEREZA Association.

Students at the 2013 GLOBE Games roll the inflatable globe through the streets of Litvinov, Czech Republic. Photo courtesy of TEREZA Association

• Local research. Students form mixed teams and collect data using select GLOBE protocols at various study sites, teaching them of the importance of collecting accurate data for research as well as team building.

Students perform research during the 2013 GLOBE Games. Photo courtesy of TEREZA Association.

• GLOBE Games newsletter.  Students take on the role of journalist and create a special newsletter featuring interviews and articles from the GLOBE Games event.
• Additional activities.  A selected GLOBE school organizes supplementary events, such as sporting activities or cinema productions, in which attending students and teachers can participate.

Students perform a theatrical production during the 2013 GLOBE Games. Photo courtesy of TEREZA Association.

The TEREZA Association, a non-profit and non-government organization that encourages and supports cooperation and active community participation in renewal and protection of a healthy environment.  TEREZA has hosted GLOBE Games in the Czech Republic for 16 consecutive years.  While GLOBE Games is held in the Czech Republic, schools from other countries are always welcome to participate.  There are on average 300 students and teachers from approximately 40 Czech schools with an additional 30 to 50 students and teachers from different GLOBE countries participating each year.

GLOBE Games has been a welcome addition to the GLOBE Program in the Czech Republic because of the cooperation between and among schools on research projects and the opportunity for schools to meet once a year.  GLOBE Games not only allows students the opportunity to practice GLOBE protocols and present the results of their projects, but also to see old friends and make new ones, to have fun and to promote both national and international cooperation.

Suggested activity: Have you ever attended a GLOBE Games?  Or have you been involved in something similar showcasing GLOBE in your area?  We would love to hear about your experience!  Send us an email at science@globe.gov, leave us a comment or share your story on our Facebook Page!

In late April I was given the opportunity to attend the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in San Antonio, Texas.  Before I left for the conference, I thought about what my expectations would be, as I had never attended a meeting like this.  I hoped that attending NSTA would be an unforgettable experience. I had never traveled to San Antonio, let alone Texas, and found this very exciting. I thought that I would have the opportunity to meet new people and have many new experiences. I was excited about attending the conference and being able to see all of the other booths and some of the presentations. I felt so very fortunate to be able to attend this conference, and looked forward to taking full advantage of what the conference offered once I got there.

And those expectations were absolutely met. Attending NSTA was a great opportunity and I will never forget it. It was really neat to be able to tour around the conference and see different types of science being utilized. Most importantly, presenting at the GLOBE booth was very neat. Performing the experiment about soil permeation was a big learning experience, and allowed me to meet and interact with people I otherwise would not have.

Savona and other students at the GLOBE Booth at NSTA

An experience at the conference I will never forget is meeting people from all across the country, and some from other countries. I was able to talk to people from Canada, United Kingdom, India, and the United States. This was unforgettable because, had I not attended the conference, I would not have been able to meet these individuals. Through a few of these people, I also learned about various scholarships and college programs, both of which are crucial to any high school student planning on attending a college or university.

By attending NSTA I learned that there is a very large group of people dedicated to science. This is crucial because science is the backbone for a lot of other fields of study, as well as being a part of everyday life. I also learned that there is nothing quite like meeting someone who is familiar with the same areas across the country as you are. This was a very neat conference, and presenting at the GLOBE booth was also a huge learning experience because it allowed me to broaden my horizons on the topic of soil.

I would tell other students who would like to attend a similar meeting or conference to absolutely jump at the chance to do so. This presentation was one of the most amazing experiences I have had, and would love to do it again. I would also tell students to not be nervous about presenting in front of a large number of people, because oftentimes it is in their head and there is nothing to worry about.

Suggested activity: Have you ever attended a meeting like this?  What was your experience?  We’d love to hear about it!  Leave us a comment, send us an email or leave a post on our Facebook page.  And be sure to attend the 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference.  There are many great projects by students from all over the world on the GLOBE website. 

It is May, and that means it is time for the 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference. My fifth graders have been working very hard on their GLOBE projects this year. They are looking forward to sharing their work with other GLOBE students, and seeing what other schools have done to learn about and care for the earth.

The first virtual conference that my class participated in was in May of 2012. I did not know what to expect. After watching the project videos that were submitted by schools across the United States I discovered that the most valuable thing that was done during the school year that made the virtual conference an engaging experience was building relationships with other GLOBE students. My students investigated GLOBE data from other schools worldwide to find out what their climate was like. Several times during the year we used SKYPE to talk with students from Crenshaw School located on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas about the progress of our inquiry projects. The third thing that helped my students make connections to others in the GLOBE Program was to participate in the Surface Temperature Field Campaign along with many schools all over the world.

Main Street School students talking to fifth graders at Crenshaw School in Bolivar Peninsula, TX via Skype about their work with GLOBE protocols. Photo courtesy M. Burns.

On the opening day of the virtual conference in 2012, anticipation was very high for my classes. We made it a festive occasion. The students invited guests, including the superintendent of our schools to participate. A big world map was placed on the wall so that the location of each school could be marked before we watched and commented on their project video. My students were eager to see and hear GLOBE friends again. The virtual conference was a highlight of the school year.

Main Street Students give the “thumbs up” to the GLOBE 2012 Virtual Student Conference. Photo courtesy M. Burns.

Suggested Activity: What are some ways that your class has made connections with others about the science you are doing? How do you celebrate the Science inquiry work of your students? Also, be sure to visit the GLOBE website and look around the 2013 Virtual Conference.

Wow! NSTA. I have never been to NSTA until invited by the GLOBE Program to present at their booth. I was told over 8,000 science teachers were registered to attend this three day event. It seems I must have spoken to each and every one of them! At least that’s what my feet tell me. Walking into the vendor hall is, in itself, an experience. National Geographic, NOAA, NSF, and Sea World were there. All the biggies in the science education world were there. Then there were the ones I never heard of before: Zooniverse, Standard Deviants Accelerate, WorldStrides and so many others. Then there was the GLOBE Program booth. Two stories tall, blue with many larger-than-life pictures. Definitely an “AH-HA” moment!

An image of the GLOBE booth at the 2013 NSTA meeting

We all joked a bit as we strapped on the “Justin Bieber” headset as we began our presentation. It was hard for me to keep it down to 20 minutes. There have been so many great stories to tell! The audience ranged from people who had never heard of the GLOBE Program before to our venerable original Gary.

I also found the time to attend one of the workshops to beta test the new eTraining.  This was really exciting and hopefully will open up the doors for many teachers to be able to bring the GLOBE Program to their students. Since the training was on the cloud protocol, we even went outside to identify clouds and calculate the percent of cloud cover.  Unfortunately there weren’t many clouds in the sky. I did not hear any complaints about the bright sunny sky, however!

Believe it or not, we even found time to relax a bit one evening and have dinner together and share even more stories. That is one of the really neat things about being part of the GLOBE community. Even though separated by miles and time, whenever GLOBE folks meet, there are always the wonderful stories to be shared.

My many thanks go out to everyone who made this once-in-a-lifetime experience possible.

This week I attended the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in Austin, TX.  I started attending eight years ago as a senior undergraduate meteorology major at Millersville University.  That first year, I’ll admit, was very overwhelming – great minds from various expertises within the Earth Sciences came together to share ideas and present their recent research.  The meeting brings many opportunities for sharing: from WeatherFest, a collection of over 65 interactive science exhibits that is free to the community, to posters and formal presentations at the meeting venue.

Like the past few years, GLOBE sponsored a table at WeatherFest, where we met members of the Austin community – from local scout troops to teachers and students.  We explored with them how fun and easy GLOBE is, by engaging with Green Down and Surface Temperature focused activities.  We also shared calendars from the student art competition.  Everyone who stopped by the table loved how you, our GLOBE Students, represented climate through your art.  WeatherFest occurs the Sunday prior to each AMS meeting, and next year’s will be in Atlanta, GA, USA.  Check out this link to watch a video of images from this year’s WeatherFest, courtesy of Teresa Eastburn of UCAR’s SPARK Program.

Julie and I take a moment to take a picture before the doors to WeatherFest open

The Meeting officially kicked off on Monday, and I was able to present how GLOBE connects to the Next Generation Science Standards, which was timely as a new draft of the standards was released on Tuesday.  GLOBE itself connects so well to the Next Generation Science Standards , as student research projects touch on each of the three dimensions of the new standards.   The three dimensions, to be explained briefly, are Scientific and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.  As you’re aware, one of the key components of GLOBE is its inquiry-based, hands-on activities.  This aligns to Dimension 1 of the Standards.  To address the different cross-cutting concepts, Dimension 2 of The Standards, GLOBE Students and Teachers engage in data analysis and application to research projects.  Finally, basic GLOBE, the implementation of GLOBE protocols aligns to Dimension 3 – disciplinary core ideas.  By looking at even one project, such as the Oyster Gardening and Climate Change project from Trinity Lutheran School in Newport News, VA, USA, it is easy to make the connection.  Once the standards are finalized, we’ll be sure to feature a post or two dedicated to how GLOBE connects to them.

On Tuesday, GLOBE was presented again to the AMS audience by showing how GLOBE students are environmental stewards in their local communities.  Since the presentation was only limited to 12 minutes, I was only able to discuss two projects: one from students in the Czech Republic who were looking out for toads crossing a busy highway, and another from students in Pakistan who created fliers to pass out to the community in hopes to clean up and protect their local water source.  Everyone in attendance was impressed when they realized that students recognize problems, research these problems using GLOBE protocols and work to find a solution.  Also on Tuesday, one of our GLOBE Teachers, Mr. Peter Dorofy from the Burlington County Institute of Technology in New Jersey, received the American Meteorological Society’s K-12 Educator Award.  He attended the meeting too, and will be blogging about his experience at the science conference in the near future.

As the week came to a close, we feel confident that The GLOBE Program had been shared in many ways with this wide scientific audience.  I was able to meet scientists and educators who are able to bring amazing expertise to students and teachers alike. I have been able to reconnect with GLOBE partners, who are attending the meeting as representatives of their organization, as well as network with the local Austin community in hopes to recruit new GLOBE teachers and schools.  It is our hope that in future meetings, we can continue to present what you, our GLOBE Community, are doing.  Whether it be future results of another competition or presenting the latest way our students are environmental stewards, members of the American Meteorological Society are inspired by what you are doing.

Suggested activity: Students – Get together with your classmates and look around your community to find a local problem and develop a project to answer the question.  Then, submit it to us through the GLOBE Facebook Page or have your teacher submit it through the “Tell Us About It” link on their My Page on the GLOBE Website.Teachers – read through the latest draft of the Next Generation Science Standards and provide your feedback.   The draft will be open for comments until 29 January 2013.

My week began on Sunday evening in a special film preview of Chasing Ice, a documentary about photographer James Balog’s quest to photographically capture the rapid retreat of several Arctic glaciers.  Mr. Balog is a scientist by training and a world-renowned photographer acclaimed for his ability to capture the human element of nature on film (or SD card in this day and age).  The film is helping communicate how climate change is real and its effects are happening now, in our lifetime, as opposed to in the past or future. The music and imagery in the film definitely revitalizes your emotional connection to our planet and beckons you to action.

On Monday, I attended the AGU Presidential Forum presentation by Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday, a popular radio program on National Public Radio (NPR) aimed at discussing current topics in science.  One part of his presentation featured a recent science and art project sponsored by Science Friday, in which they collected photos of leaves taken by fans of the program and compiled them into a colorful collage of autumn at its finest.  Later that evening, AGU hosted an Open Mic Night.  This event was full of brave AGU attendees singing, rapping, storytelling, and sharing poetry that each individual had written themselves.  Those performances clearly illustrated how the intersection of science and art can yield spectacular displays of genuine creativity.

Mini-collage of leaf photographs compiled by Science Friday (obtained from their Flickr site)

In The GLOBE Program, we also value and encourage students to stimulate their creativity by connecting art and science.  One recent example is our GLOBE Calendar Art Competition, where students from all over the world created artistic expressions of their climate.  These beautiful works of art are now featured in a 2013 calendar for us to enjoy all year long.  I participated in this competition as a judge, and I was particularly impressed by the wide range of imaginative entries that we received.  From hand-drawn cartoons to oil paintings of beautiful local landscapes, I saw evidence that creative juices are flowing vigorously in the minds of our young GLOBE scientists.

Collage of art submissions depicting climate-related topics for the GLOBE 2013 Calendar Art Competition

As a person who once considered college majors from music to meteorology myself (with meteorology winning out), I have always felt that the best scientists are also great artists.  And I also believe that all people are inherent scientists.  This may be best illustrated by my young toddler who conducts scientific experiments in our home everyday.  My son’s favorite experiments are often with gravity; he loves to drop things, watch as they fall, and then ask for me to fetch them.  (He also likes to test the repeatability of these experiments.)  In GLOBE, we encourage students to conduct inquiry-based learning projects; tapping this inherent curiosity to bring out their inner scientist.

Artwork by GLOBE scientist and artist, Dr. Graeme Stephens, Principal Investigator of the NASA CloudSat mission. GLOBE cloud observations are used by the CloudSat team to provide ground truth data for the satellite.

It is my belief that the artistic mindset is what helps propel science toward new discoveries and innovations.  Scientists use creativity to approach problems in a new way; and without this key ability our scientific fields would stagnate.  Thus, science and art, which are often considered to be on two opposite ends of the spectrum (or sides of the brain), are actually the perfect and requisite complement to each other thanks to that common thread of creativity.

Suggested activity: Tap into your creativity and illustrate your observations of the Earth with art, music, stories, or poetry and share them with us on our GLOBE Facebook Page or have your teacher submit it through the “Tell Us About It” link on their My Page on the GLOBE website.  Also, stay tuned for future science and art competitions sponsored by GLOBE, such as the next Earth Day Video Competition (see last year’s competition here)

-Sarah Tessendorf