Letter to the Community
Letter to the Community
23 February 2017
Dear Friends,
I should warn you that all my monthly letters from now through July are likely to begin with a short update on developments regarding the GLOBE Annual Meeting. This is because I want to remind you that GLOBE Annual Meetings are incredibly interesting and always famously fun. Participants -- whether partners, teachers, students or scientists -- always come away with a renewed awareness of the enormous value of being part of the GLOBE community.
All annual meetings start with a courageous partner who steps forward to volunteer to host the event in his or her community. It's a big job! This year, that person is Dr. Scott Graves, of Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU).
Scott and his gracious colleagues have already demonstrated a genuine desire to provide a warm and welcoming environment as our hosts for the meeting. In addition to providing facilities and meeting space, they have offered to open the doors of their Earth Science buildings and laboratories to provide our GLOBE student participants an insider's look at a university-level Earth Science program. What a great opportunity for our GLOBE high school and middle school students to hear from undergraduate students about various paths to entering Earth Science and other STEM professions! In addition, students and chaperones will be able to spend a day on Outer Island, a tiny private island, and center for SCSU marine research, in Long Island Sound. At the top of SCSU's Outer Island webpage, you can view a short video of the site for the GLOBE Student Field Experience.
I will share details about the meeting as they evolve. The go-to page for registration and ongoing developments is the 21st Annual Meeting webpage. If you require a visa to travel to the U.S., please contact Katy Lackey for a letter of invitation to attach to your visa application and get an early start on the registration and application process.
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The International Virtual Science Symposium (IVSS) is currently underway. For the fourth year, The GLOBE Implementation Office, under the lead of Dr. Julie Malmberg, hosts an online event that provides K-16 students an online venue for sharing their research projects, having them viewed and reviewed by scientists, teachers and other students on a global scale. The GLOBE International Virtual Science Symposium is unique and well-worth investigating.
All of our countries need more scientists, engineers, inventors, mathematicians, researchers and software designers; and all these STEM careers involve the kind of creative thinking and problem solving that GLOBE students employ in their project research and development. Be sure to let others in your networks know about the IVSS. Instructions for entering, and all information about deadlines, rubrics, resources, etc., go to the GLOBE IVSS webpage.
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Earth Day is coming! Earth Day is celebrated on 22 April every year, everywhere. Celebrating Earth Day helps focus attention on our marvelous planet though education, data collection, and community service. Earth Day 2017 is also the 22nd anniversary of GLOBE's founding, so it is a special day for our community.
Earth Day falls on a weekend this year, so the GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO) will provide a live Earth Day Google Hangout on Friday 21 April. During this event we will broadcast one short video per GLOBE region in which teachers and students tell their stories of how GLOBE is implemented in their classrooms. I can't wait to see the videos! Teachers, you have until 22 March to send your videos for consideration. Click here for more information.
We also like our community to be involved in data collection on Earth Day and this year and I'll be asking you to go outside and make cloud observations. NASA is planning special activities for you, too. More information about all of this, in my next letter.
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Thanks for reading all the way through, and thank you for your involvement with GLOBE. I'm excited about all that is going on here at the GIO and in GLOBE schools and communities around the world. We're all in this together!
Sincerely,
Dr. Tony Murphy
Director, GLOBE Implementation Office
tmurphy@ucar.edu