GLOBE News
My NASA Data Usage Record Eclipsed by the Eclipse
My NASA Data saw a year’s worth of activity in one month due to interest in the total solar eclipse. The My NASA Data website experienced a record-breaking 1 million visitors from 10 March 2024 through 10 April 2024. While My NASA Data has achieved 1 million digital engagements in the past, this was for a year, rather than one month. Visitors to the website used search terms: eclipse, solar eclipse, and what is a solar eclipse. Web metrics show visitors most frequently looked at lesson plans and mini-lessons, and the majority of views were from users in Texas, New York, and Illinois. There were over 32,000 views of story maps and interactives, which is double compared to the same time last year. The “Learning from Stars and Solar Eclipses” story map accounted for over 10,000 of these views. Over 1,500 teacher answer key requests were manually reviewed and approved from 1 March 2024 – 16 April 2024, with most requests from Texas, Indiana, and Ohio. A normal month sees around 100 requests. Educators will be invited and encouraged to continue using My NASA Data and a webinar will be offered on 24 April 2024 for new users. Information regarding the upcoming webinar can be found on NASA CONNECTS.
The solar eclipse resources on My NASA Data were developed through a collaboration with NASA Science Activation projects: GLOBE Mission Earth and NASA HEAT. Some of the resources were designed to prepare audiences for the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses but most resources can be used any time to support instruction on the Sun, Earth, Moon connection.
News origin: GLOBE Implementation Office