News - North America
GLOBE Partners Support SRS and IVSS Students through Local Symposia and Travel Support
GLOBE Partners play an integral role in the U.S. Regional Student Research Symposia (SRS) and the International Virtual Science Symposium (IVSS) by mentoring students and teachers throughout the research process. GLOBE reached out to four GLOBE partnerships that provided support through holding local GLOBE symposia and/or by funding the travel and lodging of SRS teams. Keep reading for their stories and expert advice.
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Purdue University
Purdue University started the Indiana Virtual GLOBE Science Symposium in the fall of 2018. Through the symposium, students submit GLOBE research projects. They are able to receive feedback and revise their projects before going to the SRS or submitting to the IVSS. The top two projects recognized with the College of Science Staff and Faculty Choice Awards receive travel support for the Midwest Regional Science Symposium. There is also the option to submit the project early for feedback from Purdue graduate students prior to the Indiana Symposium. Steven Smith says that “The less formal virtual program is not as intimidating as a starting platform. However, it can be very difficult for teachers to get projects started and completed in the fall semester.”
SATELLITES Conference
The University of Toledo has been hosting the SATELLITES (Students and Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret the Earth from Space) Conference for 12 years. Some students present only at SATELLITES, but many use it as a starting point for entering the IVSS. Kevin Czajkowski’s advice to other partners considering this model is “to just do it.” He suggests lining up volunteers to help, and having teachers register students and project titles ahead of time. Keep in mind that you may need to work with teachers to arrange travel. Then… “see what happens. Hopefully, some students come. Don't worry if it is small at first, if the teachers find it valuable, they will bring students again.”
the 2019 SRS.
During the 2018/2019 school year, The Boston University GLOBE Partnership focused on assisting teachers in the development of student projects for the IVSS and SRS as well as a local, Providence, Rhode Island research symposium, hosted by the Boston University (BU) GLOBE team on 04 June 2019. This local research symposium was attended by 11 classrooms, and highlighted projects that utilized GLOBE activities and protocols. For the local Providence research symposium, the level of support for the teachers varied, depending on the needs expressed by each teacher. The BU team made many classroom visits to help with poster building before the event using a powerpoint presentation template (link downloads the PowerPoint), as well as creating sample tri-fold poster models for each school. These included the titles of each section and a brief description of what information should be included in each section. Kathleen Johnson says that her advice to others “is to provide your teachers with a fillable template so they are aware of what to include and can see how to organize each section into a cohesive poster. We also advise providing examples of figures and graphs for the Results section to demonstrate how to present the products of data analysis rather than presenting the raw data.”
The BU GLOBE Mission Earth Team also sponsored five students and one teacher attending the 2019 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic GLOBE SRS. These students came from Nathan Bishop Middle School (Providence, Rhode Island). All five students were highly dedicated to their projects. Each student expressed interest in attending the regional GLOBE SRS before even beginning their projects, which is why BU was able to sponsor them.
at the 2019 SRS
In May 2019, the GLOBE partnership at Metropolitan State University of Denver sponsored two GLOBE teachers and their students to attend the Southwest Regional SRS in New Mexico. Nate Raynor (Mescalero Apache School in Mescalero, New Mexico) and Catalina Vizueth (Dove Middle School in Tulsa, Oklahoma) were among 20 teachers who attended a week-long MULTI STEM Summer Institute in June 2018 at MSU Denver. The partnership had previously supported the work of Colorado students at the 2017 and 2018 regional SRS events through mentoring and poster printing. Rich Wagner says "we were very excited to be able to provide travel and lodging support for a team who traveled from Oklahoma and four teams from the host school in New Mexico. These students related GLOBE data to local issues and presented on topics related to climate, soil pH, and agriculture." Support for these teachers was possible through an NSF ITEST grant (#1619153).
They plan to support MULTI teachers at the May 2020 Southwest Student Research Symposium in Austin, Texas. This support includes two teams from Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico. These students have used GLOBE protocols and other research to examine water quality issues in the Four Corners area.
type: globe-newsNews origin: United States of America