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2020 Virtual Meeting of the Europe and Eurasia GLOBE Community

Nov 12, 2020

“Even though we did not meet in person it was an amazing experience and provided a great opportunity for new collaboration.” Those are words of one of the 240 participants of the GLOBE Program Europe and Eurasia Meeting. The event is organized annually, however this year it was the first time we went completely online. As many participants agreed, the virtual format allowed many more teachers, students, trainers and scientists to join. They represented 32 countries both from and outside of the Europe and Eurasia Region.

Let´s Start a Collaboration and Benefit the Environment

A friendly spirit of collaboration was expressed at the virtual Market Place, when teachers and coordinators shared examples of their projects and activities. Collaboration was demonstrated in schools across countries, across student age groups and within the local community to name a few.

A part of the acronym “GLOBE” stands for “to benefit the environment”, which is one of the important aspects of the program that makes GLOBE activities meaningful. And that is why this year students and teachers were asked to highlight their projects that have direct impact on the environment or that strengthen the environmental awareness of the local community.

We learned about air pollution research combined with an art campaign for clean air in Ireland, we also followed students in Malta monitoring the conditions for turtle nests as well as many water quality related initiatives that bring attention to the precious water resources we depend on. Participants appreciated so much that students had the courage to present live and reply all sorts of curious questions from the audience.

Visiting 24 schools across Europe in four days

Thanks to students and assistance of their teachers, participants have been invited to 24 schools through a short video clips that were prepared with a great amount of creativity and enthusiasm. The movies were played all 4 days of the meeting during the sessions and breaks.

They provide an insight into the daily life of a GLOBE school – what students learn by doing science and why GLOBE is a big motivation for them to make a change in their school and surrounding environment.

Watching those videos is highly recommended, you can find them in a playlist here:

What is planned ahead

We talked a lot about what has been done in GLOBE in countries around the Region, we also learned about what is planned for the year 2021: from the new Trainers Certification to upgrading the GLOBE website and apps.

A special focus was dedicated to Hydrosphere. Teachers discussed already existing examples of water quality research project they do with students and what benefits these can have for the local environment and communities. There was a vision expressed for wider collaboration across countries. If the situation allows, Water Bodies Collaboration should bring students, teachers and scientists together at the banks of rivers, lakes and sea in 2021.

Talks about GLOBE and life

During face-to-face meetings we always enjoy the coffee break discussions that very often generate new ideas and bring new friendships. To compensate the important aspect of the event that was missing this year, we invited 5 scientists and educators to talk about their motivation to be involved in the GLOBE Program. They all joined the lively discussion at our virtual Science Café, going back to their best moments with GLOBE and expressing the gratitude to students and teachers who always inspire them, be it with a curious question, enthusiasm or the hope that each of us can make a change.

The best moments and inspiring ideas of the 2020 Virtual Regional Meeting for the GLOBE community in Europe and Eurasia were captured at a short movie:

The event was organized by Europe and Eurasia Region Coordination Office in cooperation with GLOBE Europe and Eurasia Board.

Presentations from the meeting are available for GLOBE members under this link. You have to sign in with your GLOBE account to access the presentations.