News - NASA Langley Research Center

Peggy Foletta

Image Credit: 

Courtesy Peggy Foletta

 

Leigh-Ann Olsen as a high school student during a Yosemite project trip in 2000.

Image Credit: 

Courtesy Peggy Foletta

 

Olsen (center) participates in a 2008 GLOBE workshop as Foletta's student teacher.

Image Credit: 

Courtesy Peggy Foletta

 

GLOBE logo.

Image Credit: 

GLOBE

 

GLOBE website

This is the case for Peggy Foletta, who recently retired after chairing the science department at Kingsburg High School in Fresno County, Calif., for 28 years and handed off the teaching reins of the program to an instructor who was one of her brightest students.

During her 37-year tenure as a teacher, Foletta stumbled upon a NASA educational program, which she thought could make a positive impact on her students' learning process. In 1995, Foletta brought the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, GLOBE for short, program to Kingsburg.

GLOBE is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program. During the week of Aug. 12–16, more than 250 teachers and students from more than 25 countries will gather in Hyattsville, Md., to share their experiences implementing GLOBE in their schools and to plan collaborative projects in the coming year.  The students also will showcase their research projects.  The teachers and students will talk to NASA Earth scientists, as well as conduct and receive training in GLOBE science protocols at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to take back into their classrooms across the world.

Reeling in students globally with in-the-field scientific measurements, GLOBE could harness an interest in science and turn it into a passion.

"Students learn to investigate scientific questions like actual scientists so, using specific protocols that allow them to compare data through time and across physical geography around the world," Foletta said. "It leads them to wonder about what they observe, which leads to questions and investigations generated by students themselves that mimic the way scientists tackle outstanding scientific problems."

She believes students who observe and understand their environment learn to value it and strive to preserve it.

During Foletta's tenure at Kingsburg, she crossed paths with a student in an advanced-placement biology class, Leigh-Ann Olsen. Olsen was a high school junior when she began participating in GLOBE.

Foletta remembers Olsen as being "talented" and a "go-to" person during many different projects. "She had a good background in many areas of science and knew more geology and astronomy than the others," Foletta said.

Foletta recalls being involved in two partnerships with NASA. Olsen participated in both. One in particular was about air quality in the valley surrounding their hometown. This became Olsen's focus as a GLOBE student.

"Leigh-Ann was the epitome of a GLOBE star student," Foletta said. "Who better to become a GLOBE star teacher?"

Nearly two decades after first working with GLOBE, Foletta has moved her things out of her Kingsburg science classroom, and Olsen is moving in. The student has now become the teacher.

"It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this at some point in my career," said Olsen, who now has a degree in biology. "This last year, I had the opportunity to apply for the biology position opened due to Peggy's retirement, and I took it."

Taking the position just made sense to Olsen. "Peggy really stretched my brain, and got me out in the field," she said. "Getting me out into the world, doing real science, taking data and analyzing it helped to cement it all for me."

Olsen hopes many of her future students will feel the same way. As for her teaching goals, Olsen wants to awaken their understanding of science. "I want them to know that science isn't only about reading a book or working in a lab," Olsen said. "There are so many other things to become involved in, and GLOBE is a great gateway to those opportunities."

As for Foletta, she isn't saying farewell to GLOBE just yet. She currently serves as coordinator of the Central San Joaquin Valley GLOBE Partnership and as a highly ranked GLOBE trainer. She has served at more than 50 training events around the United States and in Germany. Foletta is also on the GLOBE Education Committee.

To learn more about GLOBE, visit http://www.globe.gov.