Stars and STEM Stories
GLOBE United States: Seasoned Educator Jennifer Schmitt Encourages Student Research
Jennifer Schmitt, a science educator for grades 7–12 and department chair at North Collins Jr./Sr. High School in New York, USA, is in her second year of “doing GLOBE” with her students.
Her students collect data from frost tubes and measure snowfall to determine if their region is experiencing environmental changes. The school is just east of Lake Erie, which has a history of high amounts of snowfall every year due to lake effect snow.
Jennifer’s students noticed that their frost tube froze only four times between December 2023 and March 2024. Their data showed temperatures were unusually high and the frost tube didn’t freeze on most days. From these data, they concluded that it’s possible that environmental changes are occurring in their region, although they recognize that more data collection is necessary. They had little knowledge about changes in their environment before their research, and now they have more questions about the impact of the lack of ground freezing on soil, crops, and organisms like fleas and ticks.
Students go out daily to measure the depth of freezing in the frost tube as well as to collect new and total snowfall amounts. They then measure the rain equivalent of the snow sample to look at patterns and make sense of their data.
In 2024, Jennifer’s students traveled to Berks Nature in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA, to attend the GLOBE Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Student Research Symposium for the first time. Students were enriched by sharing their research with their peers from other schools and learning about the other students’ projects.
Jennifer says, “As an educator for 29 years, I believe it is important for students to be involved in real research. I get so much enjoyment watching them collect and analyze the data. [The Student Research Symposium] has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have participated in as an educator.”
GLOBE Program Manager Amy Chen talks with North Collins students about their research at the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Student Research Symposium.
North Collins students practiced collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates while attending the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic SRS.
Learn more about GLOBE United States.
Images courtesy of GLOBE U.S. RCO