Spongy School - Rainfall and Flood Resilience - Ireland
Rainfall and Flooding Campaign
How Spongy is your School?
Registration will open in October 2025!
Rainfall Observation Dates: January 12th - February 9th 2026
- Measure and record rainfall daily between 12th Jan and 9th Feb using a rain gauge provided upon registration in your Campaign Equipment Pack
- Upload your data to the GLOBE database where it can be used by NASA scientists!
- Map your schools grounds and record rainfall and flooding features such as land cover, vegetation, drains and puddles.
- Learn about Nature Based Solutions - explore what Nature Based Solutions are and learn about the different solutions for rainfall resilience.
- Create a ‘Spongy School’ action plan - use your knowledge of Nature Based Solutions to identify an appropriate solution that could be implemented on your school grounds.
- Present findings and get expert recommendations - create a plan to implement your chosen nature-based solution on school grounds! Receive feedback and guidance on your project from experts at our student sharing session.
- Submit your project to the Spongy Schools Competition, the GLOBE Ireland Annual Competition and GLOBE's International Virtual Science Symposium for a chance to win amazing prizes!
What are Nature Based Solutions?
- Campaign Guide – this is your one stop shop for everything relating to the campaign – information, instructions, links to all resources and activities. Consider this your master document.
- Teacher Training Presentation – this is the presentation that was delivered at the teacher training webinar. It provides a general overview of the campaign[GU1] – find a recording of the teacher training webinar here.
- Introduction to Rainfall and Flooding Presentation – this presentation provides in-depth information about all of the topics that this campaign relates to. There are sections on the water cycle, soil, flooding, and nature based solutions. This presentation is designed to be delivered alongside the campaign.
- Rainfall and Flooding Classroom Guide: Discovery Level – this resource is designed to introduce your classroom to the Discovery Level of the Rainfall and Flooding Campaign, and walk them through the steps.
- Rainfall and Flooding Classroom Guide: Immersive Level – this resource walks you through all the activities offered in the Immersive Level.
- Daily: Report your Rain Gauge Reading to GLOBE on the Observer App on a phone/tablet OR on the browser here. Make sure you sign in with your Teacher GLOBE Account
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Expert Webinar: January 2026, more info to follow!
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Student Sharing Session: February 2026, more info to follow!
1) Can we report a daily rainfall reading to GLOBE if we missed reporting it on the exact day?
Yes! You can manually enter the date and time you want to report a rainfall reading for. So it is always possible to report your rainfall readings one at a time retroactively.
2) What do we do if we forget to read the rain gauge one of the days?
If you forget to read the gauge one day, it’s ok. Just read the gauge the next day- and when you report it on the GLOBE Observer change the *days accumulated rain to 2 or however many days it has been since you last checked.3) What if there is no rain to report?
No rain is equally important to report as lots of rain! If there is no rain in the rain gauge, report 0mm and if there is less than 1mm, report T for Trace. Tracking weeks without rain helps experts forecast drought and flood risk.4) How do we report after the weekend?
Read your rain gauge on a Monday as usual. When you open the Observer App to report the millimetres of rainfall, change the *days accumulated rain to 3. That way the scientists will know that the amount of rain in the rain gauge fell over 3 days.If you have any questions, please email us at globe@eeu.antaisce.org
You can also follow along on our social media accounts @GLOBEIreland on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!
You can also follow along on our social media accounts @GLOBEIreland on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!
