The following image is a look at each December’s monthly average temperature, beginning in 1995.  The black line represents the temperature trend over the seventeen years that this school has collected data – an estimated increase of .1601°C over the 17 year period.

A timeseries showing December monthly temperatures from 1995-2011 for Zakladni Skola – Ekolog. Praktikum in Jicin, Czech Republic;
All data is GLOBE student collected data.

Using this knowledge, and setting the base 10 year reference period of 1998-2007, it is easy to calculate the short-term average for this station to determine the departure from that average.  The average temperature for December is 0.211°C.  This average is easy to calculate.  First, you calculate the average daily temperature by averaging the observed maximum and minimum temperatures.  Then, you average the daily average temperatures together to obtain the average temperature for the month of December.  Once you’ve done that for each of the Decembers from 1998-2007, you can average those together to get your average December temperature.  From here you can examine how each December departs from that average, and put it into graphical format, like below.

Departure from 10 year (1998-2007) average December temperature for Zakladni Skola – Ekolog. Praktikum in Jicin, Czech Republic; All data is GLOBE student collected data

Notice that at the beginning of the time period the occurrence of below normal temperatures was more common.  As time progressed, temperatures became more above normal, which supports the trend in monthly temperature.  Globally, the month of December 2011 was the 322^nd consecutive month where global average temperature was above the 20^th century normal – the last month that was below normal across the globe was February 1985.

Another school, Primarschule Neufeld in Thun, Bern Switzerland, has been collecting atmosphere data since 1998.  The graph below shows the monthly average temperature for each December since 1998, which indicates a positive temperature trend of 0.088°C over the entire time period.

A timeseries showing December monthly temperatures from 1998-2012 for Primarschule Neufeld in Thun, Bern Switzerland;
All data is GLOBE student collected data

Using the same base 10 year reference period of 1998-2007 as we did for the school from the Czech Republic, it is found that the average temperature for December for the school in Switzerland is 1.101°C.

Departure from the 10 year (1998-2007) average December temperature for Primarschule Neufeld in Thun, Bern Switzerland; All data is GLOBE student collected data.

It is very important, as a member of the GLOBE community, to continue building this observational record for your site.  Every data point is important in describing the bigger picture.

Suggested activity: Over the next 12 years, GLOBE students will collect enough data to be able to examine long-term changes in variables such as air temperature.  However, you can start examining your data, or data of a nearby school now.  You can even examine the data from these two schools to look at the trends for June.  What do you think you will find? We’d love to hear from you.  Leave us a comment, send us an email or get in touch on our Facebook Page.

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!

Asian Tiger Mosquito. From The Center for Invasive Species Research, University of California, Riverside

Beginning in Albania in 1979, this breed of mosquito was introduced into Europe through the transport of goods from its native region of Southeast Asia.  Since then, the population has increased dramatically and has spread to more than 15 countries along Europe’s southern edge.  Additionally, these regions have seen increasingly milder winters and warmer summers, which lend themselves to prime conditions for mosquito larvae to survive.

The Asian Tiger mosquito is known for transmitting various diseases, such as West Nile, yellow fever, dengue, St. Louis and Japanese encephalitis, and chikungyuna.  And while it is native to Southeast Asia, the species has become well adapted to life in a more temperature climate.  It has been found, in fact, that the eggs of the Asian Tiger mosquito living in temperature climates are more cold resistant than their counterparts in tropical climates.  In addition to Southeast Asia and Europe, there are Asian Tiger Mosquitos living in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.

Since 2005, the Asian Tiger Mosquito has been blamed for outbreaks of some of these vector-borne diseases in France, Italy and Croatia.  It is feared that as the climate in these regions continues to change, that the frequency of vector-borne diseases will increase.  To support this suspicion, the European Centre for Disease Control used widely-used computer models to simulate weather records for the years of 2030-2050.  They found similar trends of warming continuing, allowing the mosquito to spread to northern Europe.

Suggested Activity: Get involved in mosquito climate research now.  Start by getting involved in the Great Global Investigation of Climate and taking air temperature, soil temperature and precipitation measurements. You can then take these data and connect to the number of reported cases of one of the vector-borne diseases. And make sure to let us know about your research.  You can tell us about it through the GLOBE website or our Facebook Page.

-Jessica Mackaro