Dr. Peggy LeMone,
Credit: UCAR

We installed new insulation last year in our roof and outer walls, and installed double-pane windows.  Our impression is that insulating has  kept the summer inside temperatures cooler, especially on the hottest days.   For example, prior to insulating, we recall isolated cases of inside temperatures to 29.4 Degrees Celsius. However,  we do not have enough data to show a clear effect.  I can think of two reasons for this.

First, the weather varies from summer to summer.   Looking at Figure 4 from Part I (see below for your convenience), one sees comparable indoor-outdoor differences for 2010 (before re-insulating) and 2013 (after-re-insulating).

Figure 4 (from Part I).  Difference between living-room max temperature and that at Foothills when outside temperature exceeds 32o Celsius.

My hypothesis is that the “good” inside-outside temperature differences for 2010 can be traced to some very cool periods in the middle of the summer, as can be seen from Figure 1.  We took advantage of such cool periods to ventilate the house, which cools it (the walls, floors, etc.) enough to keep it cooler during the next period of warm temperatures.

Figure 1.  Daily average temperatures at Foothills Laboratory, for 2010 and 2013.  Data are mixing between Days 170 and 185.

The second reason is that the insulation can only slow the warming of the house itself; it can’t stop it entirely.  (Were I to have data like that in Figure 3 from Part I for 2010, I would guess the daily swings of the inside temperature would be larger than for 2013.)

Perhaps easier to understand is an example from nature.  The soil temperature varies much less than the surface temperature. And, the farther down one gets, the less the temperature varies during the day – and during the year (see
http://globe.gov/explore-science/scientists-blog/archived-posts/sciblog/2008/03/17/puddles-and-soil-temperature-part-2-why-is-the-water-feeding-the-puddle-not-frozen/ for graph that shows this).   Surface vegetation, and soils closer to the surface insulate soils and rock farther down.

If you have ever taken a tour through a cave, the guide often mentions that the temperature in the cave is close to the average annual temperature for that location.  This is because the cave is far enough down that the insulating upper layers prevent much temperature change during the year.

People actually take advantage of this steady year-round temperature to moderate the temperature in their house.  Pipes are installed deep into the ground beneath a building.  During the summer months, fluid in the pipes is cooled by the surrounding earth; and the cool fluid is pumped up into the house to cool the air.  In the wintertime, the ground below the house is warmer than the air outside, so the same system can be used to help heat the house.

Does your school collect soil and air temperature data? Have you noticed a difference in these two datasets on very warm days? Let us know by adding a comment!

With Earth warming due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, do you think caves are warming as well?  Why?   In what parts of the world would caves warm the most?  Why?

Dr. Peggy LeMone,
Credit: UCAR

Today, many homes and public areas have air conditioners to keep families cool during the hot months of the year.  This was not true 50 years ago, when a visit to the movie theater (which was air-conditioned) or a swim in a nearby lake, ocean, or swimming pool would ease the heat.  Hospitals in the town where I grew up would cool their operating rooms by bringing in big pieces of ice.

Though many homes in Colorado have air-conditioning, the climate is sufficiently mild that a large percentage of families, including mine, do not have air conditioning.  I’d like to share a strategy my family has adopted to keep us comfortable most of the time.

Being scientists, my husband and I open and shut the doors, windows, and window shades of our house according to the temperature inside and outside of the house.  Figure 1 displays the air temperature of a typical day.

Figure 1. Temperatures around our house, and at NCAR’s Foothills Lab, about 3.3 kilometers to the east. To convert afternoon times to p.m., simply subtract 12.

We use the digital thermometers on our two furnaces for the temperature inside the living room and the room to the south.  The outside thermometer, on our deck, has not been properly shielded since we had to remove a tree.  Thus we include a nearby temperature measurement, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Foothills Lab, for comparisons.

During the day, we typically keep the house closed up – this means all windows and doors closed and many shades down — until the air outside is cooler than the air in the house.  As you can see from the graph, this happens around 22:00 (or 10:00 p.m.) Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), so direct sunlight on the deck thermometer is no longer a problem.   Once the indoor and outdoor temperatures are equal, we open up the windows, and use fans to bring in the cool, outside air.  The following morning, if we are at home, we again close up windows and doors when the outside temperature increases to the same as the inside temperature.   During the week, we close up the house when we leave.  The net effect of this strategy is to keep the house cool during the day – more than 10 degrees cooler at the time of maximum outside temperature!

You might notice that the air temperature inside the house keeps increasing, long past the time of the maximum outside temperature.   This may seem odd at first, but it makes sense:  as long as the air outside the house is warmer than the air inside, the house will continue to be warmed.  Of course if we left the windows open all day, the high temperature inside the house would occur closer in time to the outside maximum temperature (and of course the temperatures would be closer as well).

How does this work from day to day?  Figure 2 compares the outside temperatures at Foothills Lab to our indoor temperatures between 9 June and 7 July.   The inside temperatures vary less during the day than those outside (as seen in Figure 1).  They also vary less from day to day.  The largest differences between inside and outside maximum temperatures are on the hottest days.

Figure 2.  Inside and outside temperatures from 9 June (Day 160) through 19 July (Day 200).

Notice that the inside minimum temperatures remain warmer than those outside, in spite of our trying to draw in outside air.  The house temperatures also vary less than the daily average temperatures, as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3.  For the same period of time, but with daily average Foothills Lab temperature.

If you look carefully at Figure 2, you can see that the opening and closing strategy doesn’t work as well in late summer, with inside temperatures closer to outside temperatures.   This effect becomes even more obvious in Figure 4, which shows the difference between the inside and outside temperature maxima for the hottest days.  (Note that data weren’t collected every day in 2010, so there could have been more warm days.)

Figure 4.  Difference between living-room max temperature and that at Foothills when outside temperature exceeds 32^o Celsius.

How is the indoor air temperature regulated at your home or school? Let us know by adding a comment!

The NGSS is NOT the Common Core in Science.  NGSS is a set of standards that were developed outside of the Common Core process.  There are a few reasons causing this confusion:

1. They were developed during the adoption process of the Common Core.
2. The Common Core in English Language Arts (ELA) contains literacy standards for science, which help students improve their ELA skills in the science content area, but they are not science standards.
3. The NGSS contain connections to the Common Core.

A Standard in the Next Generation Science Standards is composed of three parts:

1. Performance Expectation(s) which describe what a student is expected to do at the end of instruction.  Performance Expectations are composed of three dimensions – a science / engineering practice; a disciplinary core idea in life, physical or earth science; and a crosscutting concept which provides unity across the disciplines of science.
2. Foundation Boxes which contain the learning goals that students should achieve through the science / engineering practices; disciplinary core ideas; and crosscutting concepts.  The information in the foundation boxes is taken directly from the “A Framework for K-12 Science Education” which provides the foundation for the standards.
3. Connection Boxes, which identify science connections across grade levels and disciplines as well as identifying connections to the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and ELA.

These connection boxes provide a wealth of information for teachers and curriculum developers in aligning and integrating science, mathematics and English Language Arts.  Here is an example of a standard from the NGSS that provides a connection to the Mathematics Common Core:

• Grade Level – Middle School (6^th – 8^th Grade)
• Topic – Weather and Climate
• Performance Expectations
  • MS-ESS2-5. Collect data to provide evidence for how the motions and complex interactions of air masses results in changes in weather conditions.
  • MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
  • MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
  • Connection Boxes for Mathematics
    • MP.2 – Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
    • 6.NS.C.5 – Understand that positive and negative numbers are used together to describe quantities having opposite directions or values (e.g., temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, credits/debits, positive/negative electric charge); use positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts, explaining the meaning of 0 in each situation.
    • 6.EE.B.6 – Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
    • 7.EE.B.4 – Use variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem, and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the quantities.

These connection boxes are an extremely important component of the NGSS.  Without the connection boxes, we do not have standards, we only have performance expectations with foundation descriptions containing learning goals.  There are rumors that some states will only adopt the performance expectations without the foundation and connection boxes.  This should be avoided at all costs.  One of the major goals of the NGSS is to have science standards, which coordinate with “Common Core Standards” in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

So, the next time you hear someone call the new science standards “the common core” remind them that they are not the common core, but they are a new set of science standards called the “Next Generation Science Standards,” which provide a critical connection to the common core in mathematics and ELA.

For more information, check out GLOBE’s NGSS Pinterest page and NGSS Webinars for resources and connections to NGSS.

David Bydlowski

GLOBE Partner — Wayne County Mathematics and Science Center at Wayne RESA

bydlowd@resa.net

Do you remember last year when we examined the Near East and North Africa region and the potential problems that the region could face with a changing climate? This region is characterized by the Arid desert hot (BWh) Koppen-Geiger climate classification*.  A BWh classification is one where the mean annual temperature is greater than or equal to 18 °C and is too dry to support most plants.  With this climate classification, the region is extremely sensitive to shifts in climate.   This means that even small changes in climate, especially with regards to precipitation, can have dramatic effects on water scarcity.

Water scarcity occurs when the demand for freshwater exceeds the supply.  The factors that help identify the region as  BWh point to a region which relies strongly on water that comes from rivers to supply both drinking water as well as water for irrigation.  It is estimated that by 2030, the entire Near East and North Africa Region will be experiencing water scarcity (as shown by the red in the map below). 

Caption: Water scarcity in 2030, image from cropscience.org.au

Reliance on freshwater from rivers in the Near East and North Africa region has inspired the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to launch a regional initiative to address water scarcity.  The Near East and North Africa Land & Water Days will take place in December 2013. The purpose of this event is to bring together policy makers, practitioners, donors and researches to share and learn together new and effective ways to enhance land and water use practices. Sessions at the event will discuss land and water management and technologies, such as drip irrigation.

Summits such as this one are important because they bring many different types of people together to discuss the climate and how to avoid water scarcity collectively. Members of the GLOBE community are involved in this too.  For example, students from the Yamama School in Saudi Arabia demonstrated how they work together in their Earth Day video competition earlier this year.

The students used GLOBE protocols to identify the suitability of their drinking water and soil for growing crops and then provided local farmers with information on how to improve their agricultural yield.  Students are asked to visit farms and carry out research applications.

They hope that through these practices they can spread environmental awareness among their society.  For more information on how GLOBE students work together to learn about their environment and act as stewards in their community, see the entire collection of Earth Day videos.

Suggested activity: Get involved in collecting data in your local area! Collecting any of the GLOBE atmosphere protocols is a great start to understanding your local climate better.  By collecting data and entering them into the GLOBE database, you can begin your observational record that you can watch change through the years.  Have you noticed anything that’s changed already?  We’d love to hear about it!  Leave us a comment, send us an email or let us know about it on our Facebook Page!

* The Köppen-Geiger Climate Classification is one of the most widely used classification systems for determining climate. It was developed by climatologist Wladimir Köppen , later modified by climatologist Rudolf Geiger in collaboration with Köppen. To learn more about how your area is classified, see the “What is Your Climate Classification?” Learning activity.

We’d like to welcome Dr. Angela Rowe as our guest blogger.  Dr. Rowe is currently a postdoctoral scholar (“postdoc”) at the University of Washington.  While living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, she enjoys taking her science training outdoors as she explores the local landscape.  She recently hiked Mt. Rainier in Washington State, USA and wanted to share her experience.   

While sitting on the shores of Lake Washington on a sunny summer Seattle day, it’s difficult to miss the snowy tops of Mt. Rainier, which reaches 4.39 km above sea level. Since it’s nearly 2.5 km above the highest peaks of the adjacent Cascade Mountains, this volcano is greatly impacted by the storms that come in from the Pacific Ocean and is typically covered with snow well into the late summer.

View of Mt. Rainier from Lake Washington in Seattle, Summer 2013.

Paradise, an area located at roughly 1580 meters on the south slope of Mt. Rainier, is one of the snowiest places in the United States, receiving roughly 1600 cm of snow during an average winter. During the winter of 1971-72, it reached a record seasonal snowfall of 2850 cm – over 28 METERS of snow! With that kind of snowfall, it’s no surprise that glaciers cover over 90 square kilometers (km²) of the mountain. According to the National Parks Service, Mt. Rainier’s Emmons Glacier has the largest surface area (11.1 km²). On a recent trip to Paradise (that’s so nice to say, isn’t it?), I was able to see a stunning view of the Nisqually Glacier, although the top thousand meters of Mt. Rainier was lost in the clouds.

View of Nisqually Glacier on the south side of Rainier from Paradise. Summer 2013.

                Clouds are the norm at these high elevations, and although I didn’t see the top of the mountain on that day, I was lucky enough to be at an elevation at Paradise where I was in between the altostratus cloud layer that was hiding Rainier’s peak and the stratus deck below that was encompassing the lower elevations of the park. The tops of nearby mountain peaks of the Tatoosh Range peered through this lower cloud layer, and I must admit that this was one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.

View of the Tatoosh Range peeking through the clouds from Paradise. Summer 2013.

Descending down the range, into the foggy, moist world of the park, it was clear how diverse the environment is along the slopes of this mountain due to the varying climate over a large range of elevations. Mt. Rainier National Park is 953.5 km², 97% of which is designated wilderness, and contains both old growth forests and subalpine meadows. These rich, diverse landscapes house a variety of birds, mammals, amphibians, fish, and reptiles. During one visit, I encountered a northwest garter snake (Thamnophis ordinoides), salamanders (Order Caudata), slugs (terrestrial gastropods), a snowshoe hair (Lepus americanus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), and a surprisingly tame red-legged frog.

Photo of Rana Aurora (northern red-legged frog) near a stream. Summer 2013.

These moist forests are also home to a wide variety of fungus, from the fascinating corals to the common conks on old trees, and approximately 900 plant species, including colorful wildflowers. During a visit to the north side of the mountain, I even encountered the rare fairy slipper orchid (Calpyso bulbosa), appearing early in the summer after the snow melted at the lower elevations. What a beautiful sight!

A large conk grows on a tree trunk on the northern slopes of Mt. Rainier

The fairy slipper orchid (Calpyso bulbosa) growing near a river on the north side of Mt. Rainier.

When exploring the forests and snowfields of this mountain, it’s easy to forget that I’m standing on a volcano. The last eruption was estimated between 1820 and 1894 and geologists consider this mountain to be “episodically active”, meaning it will erupt again in the future. Since that last eruption, loss of glaciers has been over 20%, as the changing climate continues to influence precipitation patterns and temperature. Changes in the water cycle also affect tree growth and wildlife; a recent Mt Rainier National Park Climate workshop (March 2011), in addition to discussing these overall changes, also described a severe decline in amphibians overall in the western U.S., among other regions. While the direct cause and effects are still being sorted out, one thing that is clear is that the diverse environment of Mt. Rainier is changing. Although I’m aware of the risks of standing on an active volcano, it’s worth it to me to witness the frogs, mushrooms, old growth forests, glaciers and incredible clouds in this moment of time.

Suggested activity: Mt. Rainier isn’t the only such place to have such diverse biomes in a small area.  Mt. Kilimanjaro is another place.  GLOBE Students and Teachers have traveled up and down Kili and performed GLOBE protocols along the way.  You can read about their most recent experience here on the GLOBE Scientists’ Blog, as well as on the Xpedition’s pages.

Are you interested in clouds like the altostratus that Dr. Rowe observed? If so, visit the GLOBE Program’s Atmosphere investigation, where you’ll find learning activities and data collection protocols, as well as the GLOBE Cloud Chart to help you in identifying clouds.

Figure 1. GLOBE Partners from across the United States meeting together at a past GLOBE Annual Meeting.

The excitement leading up to a conference like the GLOBE Annual Meeting reminds me of my first scientific conference that I attended when I was an undergraduate student. I can only imagine how the 63 GLOBE students that will attend the Annual Meeting next week must feel!

I remember how overwhelmed I felt by the number of talks one could attend and the number of people speeding up and down the halls trying to make it to as many of their selected talks as possible.  Beyond the scientific presentations of that particular meteorology conference, I was also amazed to see the vast number of organizations represented in the conference exhibit hall.  From private instrument manufacturing companies to big name national research labs to contractors, I realized my understanding of the careers and opportunities in the world of meteorology was only in its infancy.

Luckily, I went to this meeting accompanied by other students from my school, a few with more conference and professional experience to show me the ropes.  As we walked around the exhibit hall, one of my colleagues seemed to know everyone! People greeted her as we passed, and many stopped to talk to her. The networking connections I saw her engage with that day even helped me get started on my career path.

Because I recognized that summer research internships were a very important way to get vital experience for joining the scientific workforce, my ambition for the following summer was to do a research internship.  I had my sights set on participating in a certain premier summer research experience, which was at a school very well known for severe storms research (exactly what I was interested in). I was also sure I wanted to attend this institution for graduate school.  Even so, my well-connected colleague encouraged me to seek out a few other opportunities for a summer research experience and graduate school, and even helped me navigate around the booths in the exhibit hall to gather pamphlets about each.  After the conference, I applied to all of the programs I found that week, plus to the one I had my heart set on.

This networking experience led my career path in a completely different direction from what I originally thought it would be, since I ended up choosing to participate in a different summer research experience and I attended one of her suggested graduate schools.  I am very happy with my choices, which I feel have broadened my horizons much beyond where I would be if I had stuck to my original plan.

Almost 15 years from that fateful conference, I am now a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and hold a split appointment as a scientist with The GLOBE Program.  My fairly unique split appointment is yet another example of the power of networking.  As I started my scientific research career after obtaining my Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science, I discussed my interests with many colleagues until finally I made the connection that gave me this opportunity to pursue my interests in both scientific research as well as science education.

Figure 2. GLOBE Science and Education Team staff, including myself, with a GLOBE teacher at the American Meteorological Society conference exhibit hall.

I am grateful for having many connections with people in my field and believe that similar networking opportunities, such as the GLOBE Annual Meeting and networks like the GLOBE International Scientist Network (GISN), can help scientists, educators, and students in the GLOBE community connect and contribute to the vision of GLOBE.

So whether you are a GLOBE student, scientist, teacher, or community member, and whether you are attending next week’s GLOBE Annual Meeting or another conference down the road, keep in mind the benefits that networking with your colleagues can have on your career.  And also remember that there are plenty of young me’s out there in need of the eye-opening guidance that networking can provide.

Figure 3. GLOBE scientists, trainers, and student alumni at a past GLOBE Annual Meeting.

Traveling to the GLOBE Annual Meeting next week? Upload your “I do GLOBE” video here. 

Are you a scientist interested in working with students?  Join the GLOBE International Scientist Network (GISN)!  For more information on how to join the GISN, click here.

Why is zero so important?  Mathematically, zero is often used in reference to calculations and measurements.  In the scientific world, we often consider mathematics as the language of science; therefore, in science it also refers to a calculation or a measurement.  In many cases, knowing the absence of something is sometimes just as important as knowing the presence of something, such as migrating animals or even rainfall.

Let’s look at two real world examples that indicate how important zero is to Earth science:

First, let’s look at the Marshall Islands: The Marshall Islands, a collection of coral atolls and low-lying islands in the North Pacific, are undergoing a unique climate shift.  These islands, which comprise about 181 square kilometers of land, are experiencing extreme drought and extreme flooding simultaneously.  The following two pictures were taken only a month apart, but on two different islands, depicting two very different conditions.

Flooding in Majuro, Marshall Islands, June 2013. Photo taken by Anole Valdez, 2013.

Drought in the northern islands from May 2013. Photo from UN.org.

To put these two extreme events in perspective, observe the following map of the Marshall Islands.

Map of the Marshall Islands, from cia.gov

If only one atmospheric station reported data in a situation like this, then one could assume that the entire country was experiencing the same weather; Additionally, if atmospheric observers didn’t value the submission of zero rainfall and only reported data when there was rainfall, those not directly connected to these islands might think that it always rains and on certain days, observers fail to report their data.  That is obviously not the case, as can be seen in the two photos.  It’s important to collect and submit all observations to understand the entire scenario.

Second, let’s look at the Great Lakes region of New York State: In September of 1996, flooding occurred north of Buffalo, New York due to a lake effect rain event.  A lake effect rain occurs when the air temperature is much colder than the water temperature of a nearby lake.  As the cold air passes over the warm lake, some of the lake’s water evaporates and precipitates out (as either rain or snow, depending on how cold the air temperature is) over areas downwind of the lake.  In this specific example from 1996, Lake Erie observed water surface temperatures of 22.8°C, while the air temperature overnight was around 8°C.  As you can see by the radar image below, there was only a small area of land that experienced this extreme weather event (within the circle).

Lake effect rain event on the northern coast of Lake Erie which occurred in 1996. Photo from NOAA.

In meteorology and climate research, it is just as important to know when rain does not occur as when it does.  Therefore, when you check your rain gauge or snow board you are collecting data on how much rain or snow fell.  Noting zero rainfall in the rain gauge is as valid and important as noting that the cloud cover is “No Clouds” (0% cloud cover) or zero Hummingbirds were observed at the feeder.

Consider this: a desert is a place with little or no rain and is indicative of a location’s climate; a drought is a time when little or no rain falls, and is indicative of a longer term weather pattern.  Knowing when and where precipitation falls is significant in understanding the environment, as it helps to distinguish between whether or not a location is a desert or is only experiencing drought.  What this means in practice is that if you observe nothing in your rain gauge you should report zero for liquid precipitation.

If you see that there is no precipitation in the rain gauge, leaving that field blank is not the same as noting that no rain was in the rain gauge.  If you report zero, others will be certain that there was no rainfall and a zero will show on the map for your site.  Having your measurement of zero included in the day’s dataset improves the contours on the visualization and helps everyone recognize the true extent of GLOBE student observations and contributions to environmental knowledge.

Suggested activity:  Ask a friend, parent or teacher to describe the importance of zero in his or her daily activities.  Does zero have value in your life?  We hope through this post that you understand how valuable an observation of zero really is.  On your next visit to your atmosphere site, please be sure to take note of your rain gauge and report your rainfall amount, even if it’s zero.

Now that the Next Generation Science Standards have been released and many states are considering adoption, a question that many science educators are pondering is: “How can I tell whether resources are aligned to the new standards?”

Let’s look at how we might begin to answer that question. Suppose we had this fifth-grade performance expectation (PE):

5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

A first step might be to check whether students have the opportunity to meet this expectation in the current curriculum through a series of learning investigations that asks students to use information about the different reservoirs of water on Earth — oceans, lakes, ice caps, etc. — and make a graph from it. A gap analysis describing the alignment of the curriculum to each standard is one way to accomplish this.

Sample gap analysis created for fifth-grade curriculum. Image created by Fred Ende.

However, educators must remember that identifying gaps such as in the above example is only a first step. The Next Generation Science Standards are performance expectations for assessments (both statewide and at the classroom level), and not a curriculum. So, while pre-existing learning investigations may be an acceptable way to meet this PE, they are also not the only way to address it. From here, educators need to think about whether alignment is simply massaging current curriculum to fit PEs, or whether a gap analysis provides for some truly innovative opportunities. For example, it would also be possible to craft a project-based unit on the water cycle, perhaps including an investigation of local waterways, constructing models of the local watershed, and embedding an engineering project to create a device to improve water quality. This big picture approach moves from a standard gap analysis to an integrated design where the foundations of the NGSS can truly be seen in action. In fact, this sample unit could be used to address both the standard above and three others in fifth grade:

5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Units such as these not only ensure that required disciplinary core ideas are “covered” at the appropriate level, but also address many other important considerations, such as directly engaging students in scientific and engineering practices, and assisting students (and teachers) in seeing the disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) connections the cross-cutting concepts provide. This is where the original graphing activity starts to fall short, because in isolation it might meet the “letter” of the practice “Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking” but it doesn’t quite attain the “spirit” of having students engage in multiple practices in an authentic context, as scientists and engineers do. In fact, under our revised unit design, the graphing activity might actually become a performance-based assessment task at the end of the unit (or a formative measure during the unit) rather than an activity designed to teach the material to be learned.

This distinction between curriculum and assessment is very important, because it means that to determine alignment in many cases we need to look at the vision of the NGSS, including use of the three dimensions — Disciplinary Core Ideas, Cross-Cutting Concepts, and Scientific and Engineering Practices –, integration with the common core ELA and math standards, and a focus on depth of coverage over breadth. At this year’s National Science Teachers Association conference in San Antonio, Ted Willard from NSTA shared an ongoing project to create rubrics for the NGSS similar to the tri-state rubrics for Common Core alignment. Rubrics such as these which take into account multiple factors are one method of avoiding an overly narrow focus on alignment to the letter rather than the enduring purpose of the NGSS.

In conclusion, alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards is a complex topic, and will likely mean very different things to different people. However, alignment must mean more than just “checking boxes” or a simple “crosswalk” from old standards to new. After analyzing existing resources using techniques such as a gap analysis, educators need to think long and hard about whether the curriculum truly meets the intentions of the K-12 Framework for Science Education and NGSS, and what alterations would be needed if it does not.

Suggested Activity: Join Dave, Marcy and the GLOBE Program Office for a webinar on Thursday, 18 July at 17:00 UTC (1 pm EDT/12 pm CDT/11 am MDT/10 am PDT).  This webinar marks the first in a series of aligning the GLOBE Program with Next Generation Science Standards.  Find out more information on the webinar here.

When people think of life in the seas, it is often the majestic that comes to mind, such aswhales, sharks, rays and coral reefs, or our own sustenance in the form of the fish that feed billions of us around the world.  Rarely do we think of plankton, the tiny organisms found across the world’s oceans. Plankton are comprised of two general types: phytoplankton, which are microscopic plant-like cells, and zooplankton, the tiny animals that graze the phytoplankton (there are, however, some plankton that can reach nearly 2 m wide and weigh more than 200 kg, such as the Nemopilema nomurai, or the Nomura jellyfish)  Despite their size, these small life forms are enormously important for the planet in several ways.  First, they are the foundation of the marine food web as they provide 50% of the oxygen we breathe. Additionally, they play an integral role in the global carbon cycle, which you can learn more about through GLOBE’s global carbon cycle activities.

The word plankton is derived from the Greek word “planktos”, which means drifter, since plankton drift at the whim of the ocean’s currents.  While they have almost limitless distribution across the world’s oceans, their vertical extent is limited to the sunlit layer of the water, known as the photic zone. Here they use sunlight to photosynthesize, converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into organic compounds and producing half the oxygen we breathe. With this action, plankton are as important as the trees and plants in making our planet habitable.

Schematic showing the photic zone. Image from Pearson Education.

In addition, by converting CO2 into organic compounds, plankton play both short term (centuries) and long term (geological time frames) roles in the global carbon cycle. When they die and sink to the ocean floor, they may be part of a long term sequestering of carbon as part of the ocean floor or become part of a carbon pump cycle that moves carbon throughout the oceans and helps manage atmospheric CO2.  The oceans take in CO2 at greater levels in colder waters near the poles. Because that cold water is also denser, it sinks and transfers the carbon to the deep ocean where it can circulate. Eventually, this carbon-rich deep water returns to the surface at upwelling regions where plankton consume it as part of their biological processes and then return it back to the depths in death.

While there is still much to be learned about plankton, scientists are finding evidence that these organisms are under significant threat.  Two changes are of particular concern: rising ocean temperatures and changing pH. Since plankton live at the ocean’s surface, they are particularly susceptible to temperature changes in the water and scientists have begun recording alterations in the distribution, abundance, and seasonality of plankton in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In addition, increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are affecting the ocean’s pH. As carbon dioxide (CO2) enters the sea surface, it dissolves in the water (H20) and forms a weak acid called carbonic acid. As atmospheric CO2 increases, more enters the sea and scientists are documenting increasing acidity in ocean water. Many zooplankton rely on calcium carbonates in the water to help build their structures and these minerals are less available in more acidic conditions.

A closeup view of plankton. Photo courtesy of Janis Steele

These changes occurring in the oceans will have profound consequences for the ecology of the whole planet.  Here aboard Llyr, we are participating in a citizen science campaign to monitor plankton.  We are using two simple tools to do these studies: a Secchi disk and a plankton net.

The Secchi disk is one of the earliest and simplest devices to study plankton in their environment. Because phytoplankton affect the turbidity, or clarity, of the water, an easy visual experiment can tell us a great deal. Invented in 1865 by Pietro Angelo Secchi, the latest version we’re using aboard Llyr is a weighted, white plastic disk attached to a length of rope marked in 50 cm intervals.  We lower the disk into the water and the depth at which is disappears is called the Secchi depth.  Not only are we recording the turbidity but also the depth to which phytoplankton can grow in the water column. Our data from these experiments in submitted to Plymouth Institute in England, where Dr. Richard Kirby has initiated a campaign to enlist seafarers in monitoring plankton around the world (See Ocean Drifters; A Secret World Beneath the Waves, R. Kirby, Firefly Books 2011).

Holding a secchi disk. Photo courtesy of Janis Steele

The second device we are using to study plankton is a plankton net. Charles Darwin used a plankton net during his famous voyage aboard the Beagle.   Our 200 micron net is sized for the collection of larger zooplankton. As we tow the net behind Llyr, zooplankton are strained from the water and washed in to the collector at the bottom of the net. We are then able to observe and photograph these creatures using Llyr’s microscope.  There are two types of zooplankton: the holozooplankton that spend their whole life cycle as plankton, and the merozooplankton, those creatures that spend just a part of their life cycle as plankton in larval stages, maturing to creatures that live on the sea bed, such as urchins, crabs, worms and mollusks.

A plankton net. Photo courtesy of Janis Steele.

Examining creatures collected from the net. Photo courtesy of Janis Steele.

Today, new and more sophisticated technologies are available to study plankton. It is even possible to observe them from space due to the fact that phytoplankton have photosynthetic and other pigments which color the water when they bloom!  Despite the importance of plankton and even though they live on the surface of the sea, there is still much more to learn about plankton, these tiny organisms that make life on Earth possible.

Suggested activity: While these studies are in the ocean, plankton are found in freshwater too.  In conjunction with GLOBE hydrology protocols, you can collect water samples to look under a microscope at the types and numbers of plankton. By continuing this experiment over many years, you can begin to learn of the relationship that Steele and McCutchen describe here.  If you’ve already examined plankton, we’d love to hear about it!  Leave a comment here or on our Facebook page, or send us an email to science@globe.gov.

As part of my Master’s Applied Research Project, I collected stories as richly diverse as the international GLOBE community itself from the question: “What does stewardship mean to you?” Answers ranged from “ taking care of Earth and its natural resources for the benefit of all creatures,” to “managing environmental resources,” and “developing a global consciousness and responsible behavior towards nature.”

What impressed me about the GLOBE community is how, teachers and students are inspired to act in their local or global community through the implementation of inquiry-based investigations. Learning about science by doing science led to small, yet powerful acts:

• My students and I clean the waterways in the nearby park in the spring.
• We pick up trash at the beach.
• My youngest has a passion for picking up cigarette butts because he is really afraid of the impact it will have on animals.
• We make smarter choices when buying items at the store, items that can be recycled or buy from local vendors rather than big corporations that might not use the “best practices.”
• We are trying to reduce our carbon footprint – this includes becoming more educated on how to do this.

Students from Moldova, Estonia show how much trash they picked up from the side of the road. Photo courtesy of Ketlin Piir.

I am honored to have been able to connect with GLOBE community members around the world to hear these stories. But evidence of GLOBE students dedicated to stewardship is easy to find – just watch the Earth Day competition videos!

In one video, students collected water samples from the creek and tested the pH, nitrate level, and conductivity in hopes that they might be able to use the data to let the city and county officials know what is happening to the quality of their creek. Another school observed that the pH has been consistently dropping in a nearby river through fourteen years of hydrology data collection. By working with NASA, these students were able to determine that the probable cause was due to acid rain from a nearby polluted valley. When they discovered this, the students became very active in spreading environmental awareness in their school. In a third video, GLOBE students used several water and soil protocols to examine soil and water quality for local farmers and then followed up by sending private letters to the farmers.

My Applied Leadership Project, which had me observe GLOBE and design a project that directly benefits the organization, has shown me how GLOBE is helping to enrich the lives of many students around the world and how they can protect Earth by doing science. I found that through the investigations, they experienced a more intimate connection with the natural world. As GLOBE evolves and expands, it will continue to spread environmental awareness to millions of additional students, scientists, and teachers around the world. I believe that GLOBE is a vital component of maintaining a viable and resilient planet for future generations.

An illustration of how GLOBE is used to understand local climate. Drawing was submitted to the 2013 Calendar Competition

Suggested activity: Tell us how you’ve become environmentally aware through your participation in GLOBE.  Leave us a comment, send us an email or tell us about it on our Facebook Page.