We are looking at their ACTIVE engagement with the various components. Through having students/teachers working in teams, we have created diverse working groups. For example, there are students who gravitate towards field work, others towards the technical aspects (i.e. preparing and flying the kites and/or drones,VR/AR) and others in tasks like image analysis using ImageJ and.or Multi-Spec. In terms of CTE applications, all of these experiences are in some way transferable into other disciplines that students may encounter in their future studies or careers. Working in an Informal education setting we are not restricted to standards, testing, curriculum demands etc., rather we are focused on exposing students to the work of STEM professions found throughout NSF, NASA, and NOAA. "To Observe the Earth and Visual their Future"! We encourage and support ALL students to participate in the GLOBE Program's Students Research Symposiums and/ or the International Virtual Science Symposium.

Thanks John, I appreciate hearing more of the details!

The AREN Project is another NASA CAN Project that has their own set of learning objectives and goals. We are honored to partner with them and leverage our work since we share so many common goals. You can check out the NASA AREN Project at https://www.globe.gov/web/aren-project. Through these type of partnerships/collaborations, we grow our network of PI's, scientists, and educators. STUDENTS are the primary beneficiaries of these collaborations!

We are also part of the User Group of the  AREN Project, equally honored to be part of that community.  The video mentions the ground truthing aspect.  Could you add more about the venture out to the field with the Aeropods and the types of levels of expertise that you build in the process of "active engagement"?  If you visit our video, we are converting the classroom experience to the role models and would like to hear more about your approach. 

Betsy, thanks for comments and questions. As a member of the AREN Community, I am sure you have experienced the first challenge ... building the kites and assembling the Aeropod. Learning to fly was the next challenge. We had 2 college interns work with us to accomplish these first 2 steps. We were then "field ready". We worked with a group of teachers out in the field teaching them to fly and collect imagery. We had previously flown drones capturing imagery and through a software called "Drone Deploy", we were able to create a 3-D map and also produce thermal scenes. The imagery from the AEROKATS were put into a GIS (that can be seen in the video). This part was implemented to address the  "ACQUIRE" portion of the project and the creation of a GIS , Analyze. We then had teachers fly drones to collect imagery of their school, and introduced Kites 101 to the students. It is important to note that we do not expect all teachers and students to achieve very high skill proficiencies, but rather allow students to gravitate to the portion that they feel most interesting, becoming the lead for that "job". In conclusion, students  come to understand that it takes a team which varying levels of expertise to produce an image.

We do believe that students collecting their own data is essential. I think this a necessary first step on the journey of Data Literacy. Precollege students are asked to make data driven assessments, or decisions, but having little or no understanding of the data collection process (the protocols, frequency of sampling, and quality control). The data collected is being used to compare data sets from ground observations and any variance in altitude fro example. In a case presented in the video, students created a map through the use of GIS, of the study area. Creating a GIS is year another CTE transferable skill.

Thanks for you comments! Yes, we have conducted Teacher Professional Development Workshops in an attempt to accomplish exactly what you have pointed out ... developing content, skills, and educational leadership, building a K-12 Teacher Think Tank that is supported by each of us in the group. There are 2 national education policies that present opportunities for change, the inclusion of the Earth and Space Sciences in The Next Generation Science Standards (which require most of this type of content), and STEM of course. In my view, STEM course designers have the opportunity to develop and address strong STEM goals, solve the underrepresented Geoscience dilemma in K12 education, offer students workplace readiness skills, AND study relevant environmental topics that are a part of our nations future. The bonus is ... students actually like this stuff!

Thanks for the clarification, John. I see from the teacher comments here that your PD workshops are especially appreciated! I like how you are leveraging all the different potential ways to engage kids and educators in this content domain!

Margaret

Vicky, thanks for your comments. To all, Vicky is an amazing teacher and strong educational policy leader. We are proud that she is on our team! I would invite anyone to contact her and take a look of how she has collaborated with us, add her personal touch for the concepts and activities to work in her particular teaching environment,  and worked through the implementation in her classroom. One only has to speak to, or hear from, her students about engaging in their research and you will have all the proof you would ever require that students can excel using these approaches. Vicky and her students are often featured on GLOBE and GLOBE Mission Earth webinars, check out the online archived events and see for yourself!

Thanks again for your post, I'm looking for other "Agents of Change" out there to comment!

Thanks Mike for the kind words. We use the innovation lab at our center in particular to prototype new apps in mixed reality and its use in visualizing the world around us. From manipulating 3d molecules to walking on the moon, students use mixed reality to explore the big and the small!

Mike, thanks for your kind words. There continues to be discussion around the topic of "creating the pipeline". One of our goals for this work is to expose K-12 students, and sometimes that includes teachers as well, to the world of the outdoor laboratory, current technology, and how all of these areas of study are required to address issues like, water quality, land cover, environmental health, agriculture/food, hazardous weather, and climate. These are not issues that can wait for graduate school. Our approach has been to give teachers the right tools and resources, create "pockets of excellence"  while expanding our work through groups like GLOBE, NASA, NOAA, American Meteorological Society, AGU and others. A part of this change is in curriculum, instruction, and assessment departments, the focus then shifts to teacher preparation. Often these types of topics are deemed "too difficult" for precollege students. That is false! We have Pre-K children engaged in GLOBE Phenology investigations (i.e. Green-up and Green Down, Budburst) and have third graders able to  work with concepts such as "ascending and descending" polar orbiting satellites and why there is a choice between geostationary and polar orbiting satellites to complete the science mission.

Thanks for checking in!