Stars and STEM Stories
GLOBE LAC Regional Office Organizes the “Trees Within LAC” Campaign
“Create your logo for the regional campaign" winner, Mayerli Elizabeth Juarez's submission.
For the first time, The GLOBE Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (GLOBE LAC) organized the "Trees Within LAC" campaign, which is a formative research campaign oriented to recognizing the tree species of the localities where the students reside and their dynamics over time, through field measurements following GLOBE protocols of tree height and circumference, phenology and other complementary (atmospheric and soil) data.
The campaign will provide information about the phenophases as climatic bioindicators. This information will feed regional bioclimatic calendars to increase awareness about our changing climate within the GLOBE LAC community. The campaign will also contribute to raising knowledge about the potential and current tree ecosystem problems, such as fires, deforestation, pest invasion, and urbanization.
The main objective of the "Trees Within LAC" campaign is to recognize the most important tree species in the region, describing their phenophases and identifying the environmental variables involved in their development.
The campaign runs from February 2023 to December 2023 and will consist of 11 monthly webinars (1 per month) that have different measurement challenges, such as:
- measuring twice a month at the educational center study site
- having as many measurements as possible during the Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) planned
There will be two IOPs to upload data:
- First intensive observation period: April-May
- Second intensive observation period: August-September
- Data challenge: 1-15 November
The campaign will feature two different awards:
- Promoting field trips for teachers and their students to a park or nature reserve where they can develop on-site measurements, ideally accompanied by the Coordinator or a Trainer who can advise and guide them. There will be five field trips of US$300 each.
- End of project: travel to attend the LAC Regional Meeting for six teachers and one student each, with the option of inviting a second student at their own expense. Students must be at least 11 years old to be eligible for the award.
Additionally, GLOBE LAC Regional Office organized a drawing contest: “Create your logo for the regional campaign.” They received 248 drawings from eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay), some examples shown below.
Teacher Gladys Barrera Dávila sent in the design of student Mayerli Elizabeth Juarez, 14 years old. The Buganvilia Educational Center (Guatemala) student's drawing won the contest to design the logo for the "Trees Within LAC" campaign.
"The main idea that inspired me to create the logo is that since I was a child, I have loved plants, especially fruit trees, whose branches give beautiful colorful flowers. The logo I designed represents the care and conservation of the different species of trees and their importance for the care of the ozone layer and our environment", Mayerli Juarez.
A jury chose the winner through a scoring methodology.
The members were:
- Nektaria Adaktilou, an external evaluator for Globe Mission Earth (United States)
- Lenka Kleger, Coordinator of the Phenology Campaign for the Regional Coordination Office for Europe and Eurasia (Czech Republic
- Ramona Mercieca, Globe Deputy Country Coordinator (Malta)
- Peter Falcon, NASA (United States)
"We were very excited when we knew we were the winners of Mayerli's drawing. It is a significant achievement as an educational center, especially of the art teacher Gladys Davila, who guided the students and brought out all their talent. The impact of the award is to be recognized internationally and nationally - this is a significant achievement in the life of the educational center," Magdalena Cebing, Director of the Buganvilia Educational Center in Guatemala, seen below.
Furthermore, this campaign has some essential benefits, such as:
- Professional development for participating teachers
- Opportunity to interact with scientists
- Establishment of research collaborations
- Mentoring and facilitation opportunities for research participation in scientific events such as the International Virtual Science Symposium (IVSS)
- Incentive for developing students' creativity by developing a logo for the campaign through a regional contest
The campaign leaders are Ana Prieto from Argentina, Andrea Ventoso from Uruguay, Claudia Caro from Peru, and the GLOBE LAC Regional Office.
To conclude, this event is essential to GLOBE because it is the first time that the GLOBE LAC Regional Office has developed a campaign adapted to the different seasons and the school calendar of the countries that comprise the GLOBE LAC community.
LAC RCO submitted this Star Story.