Stars and STEM Stories
Pine Elementary/Junior High School, Mountain Home, ID, United States
Imagine walking out your school doors into the middle of a thick forest with bears, bobcats, deer and elk possibly roaming nearby. It may seem unusual, but it's just another day at Pine Elementary and Junior High School - a one-room school house for students of all ages located 60 miles from the nearest town in Idaho.
GLOBE Teacher Peggy Exon believes GLOBE has been especially successful at Pine because the program's adaptability to a wide variety of age groups. "You cannot believe how well these kids get along, and what patience these older ones have with the younger ones," says Ms. Exon. "When we're taking the water temperature or soils measurements, for example, the little ones will test maybe one or two things, while the older ones will take all measurements, test them, write the reports, and use the scientific method. The little ones are so sharp because they are in on what the older students do."
The Idaho GLOBE Franchise assisted the school in getting started on GLOBE by helping them obtain a computer which, Ms. Exon says, helped expand the students' world. "Pine Elementary is one of the best reporting schools in the state," says Michael Odell, Earth scientist at the College of Education at the University of Idaho and co-director of the Idaho GLOBE Franchise. "With GLOBE, the kids really have an opportunity to do something that's not textbook-based and takes advantage of their wonderful setting."
In addition to using the GLOBE protocols for their atmosphere, hydrology, land cover and soil studies, the Pine GLOBE students are also using GLOBE activities to teach math, language, social studies and reading. "There isn't anything we don't work with," Ms. Exon said. "The ecology is amazing here."
For more information on the Pine School, and GLOBE in Idaho, visit http://ivc.uidaho.edu/globe/