Stars and STEM Stories
GLOBE Ecuador Students Reconnect To GLOBE through “Human Amid the Cosmos” Science Fair
Left to right: Ignacio C.; Fabiana G.; Ana Sofía M.; Emilia G.; and Emanuel M.
In 2021, students at the Colegio Británico Internacional School, in Quito, Ecuador, worked to reconnect their scientific endeavors to The GLOBE Program – creating the “Human Amid the Cosmos” Science Fair. During the fair, seventh graders engaged, once again, with the GLOBE experience and shared their experiences.
“We participated in The GLOBE Program in 2011 and 2012,” the students’ science teacher, Ana Sofía Miranda, said. “This year, 2021, we reconnected to the program in the first unit of inquiry about atmosphere and climate.”
“We were part of our school's science fair on 20-21 October, and some students created a stand to talk about GLOBE to the rest of the community. Fabiana, Emilia, Ignacio, and Emanuel were the best group in their class,” Ana said.
Left to right: Ignacio C.; Emilia G., Fabiana G.; and Emanuel M.
“Learning about new things,” Ignacio C. said, “such as clouds and satellites, was very interesting. What I liked the most was presenting our project with my classmates to the rest of the school in our science fair because we did a lot of effort to learn about it.”
“I think the rest of the school, as we did, can learn more about the program, and they are a lot more interested now that we showed them some things about clouds and satellites,” Ignacio said.
“It was fascinating to look for ideas and material,” Emilia G. said. “I also liked that a lot of visitors liked our stand, because we did. All the effort was worth it. And we did not do it just for a grade, but also to tell more people about it.”
Left to right: Ignacio C.; and Emilia G.
“It was pretty interesting to get more information because the more we did,” Fabiana G. said, “the more great things we found about atmosphere and NASA. It was super fun to build up our satellite models and putting up our stand with posters and models.”
“I think it is important because a lot of people here think NASA only sends rockets to space and the moon, but it really does much more than that,” Fabiana said.
“During the science fair,” Emmanuel M. said, “I told about how to use the app to send reports about clouds in the fair, since I did it myself once and thought it was super easy, it was easy to explain too.”
Emmanuel said this effort was important to him because then more people could learn about the satellites' flyover times. “I would like to tell everyone that it is a very important project to be able to predict weather, and to find possible solutions to many climate change issues and about the research NASA does to help on that and let us participate from anywhere. Maybe it will help people to think and take action about environment.”
Left to right: Fabiana G.; and Emanuel M.
The students’ teacher, Ana Sofía Miranda, said that reconnecting to The GLOBE Program was important because “Quito is known for its unpredictable weather, but students here learned that clouds usually tell us what weather we will have in some hours only if we pay attention to their changes and types. They collected and sent information first as a class, then in groups, pairs, and finally by themselves. Now that they use technology in most of their classes, using the app was really simple, and they feel part of the NASA team.”
“I think GLOBE is a great opportunity for schools and communities to be able to cooperate inside and out, to create consciousness, and give real tools for students, teachers and even parents to be part of scientific research and action-taking,” Ana said.
Star Story submitted by Ana Sofía Miranda, 7th Grade Science Teacher; Quito, Ecuador.