News - United States of America
GLOBE Mission Earth West Trained 43 Los Angeles-Area Camp Counselors
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Office of Outdoor Environmental Education (OOEE) hosted an 8-hour hydrosphere training for 43 camp naturalists and counselors from three LAUSD outdoor education camps: Canyon Creek, Clear Creek and Point Fermin. The LAUSD camps mission is to help students create an emotional connection to learning and the outdoors. GLOBE Mission Earth West (GME-West) led the training.
The all-day training began with an introduction to GLOBE and GME-West. Some camp naturalists had previous experience with GLOBE hydrosphere and atmosphere protocols and welcomed the opportunity to re-engage with the work. Morning activities consisted of a data analysis exercise to emphasize the importance of the use of data as a learning tool, followed by an introduction to hydrosphere protocols. Participants performed data analysis on different water body samples collected prior to the event: ocean, brackish, mountain creek and tap waters.
The afternoon centered on microplastics. Participants filtered their water samples and analyzed the filter paper under low power in monocular microscopes. The good / bad news was that the participants were able to identify several different microplastics in all of the water samples. The day concluded with the camp teams discussing how the day’s activities could benefit learners who attend their camps. Next steps for the naturalists and counselors are to secure funding from the district for equipment and integrate GLOBE into their programs. It is anticipated that this GLOBE work will reach nearly 70,000 LAUSD students each year.
LAUSD OOEE and GME-West are active members of the Earth system science California Strong Collaborative. CA Strong is a group of scientists, researchers, outreach specialists and educators who work together to spread Earth system science initiatives throughout California using the tools and resources of the GLOBE Program.
Photo caption: Camp naturalists and counselors from three Los Angeles-area outdoor education centers attend a GLOBE training
News origin: United States of America