NSF Awards: 1938902
2021 (see original presentation & discussion)
Grades K-6, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12
What changes have you seen in the environment during the Covid-19 pandemic? This is the question put to the students of the GLOBE Program, an Earth Science and Education Program that engages students in 124 countries in meaningful research about the environment. This is a sample of the many responses received.
The GLOBE Program is sponsored by NASA and supported by NSF, NOAA and the U.S. Department of State. GLOBE has built a network of student, teachers, scientists and citizen scientists, across the world, over the past 25 years.
Tami Lunsford
I love this idea and the compilation of videos! Seeing children all over the world sharing the POSITIVES they saw due to the pandemic gave me a feeling of much-needed hope in a challenging time. I can't wait to share this with my students!
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Thanks Tami. Yes these students have the remarkable capacity to stay positive. They are an inspiration to us. Do show this to your students! I'm sure it will spark an interesting discussion about what they have observed during the pandemic, too.
Tami Lunsford
Kevin Czajkowski
This is a great video. I had asked students to listen to nature when everything was shutdown. There was a lot less noise pollution and birds and animals were easier to hear. One teacher had her students listen to the Spring Peeper frogs.
Tami Lunsford
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Hi Kevin, your comment " there was a lot less noise" really touched me. As we all try to see a silver lining in this epic time, the opportunity to be able to be better listeners, and to be able to cut through the noise, is certainly a positive and hopefully will carry over throughout our lifetimes.
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Hello everyone and welcome to our GLOBE Program video! The focus is our video is, as one might expect during a pandemic, the pandemic and what students have notice in nature during this time. GLOBE engages students from 125 countries, so were able to hear from student in lots of different places when we put the question to them. What you are seeing here is just a smattering of voices and (due to the time limitation of this showcase) a shorter selection than was in our original video. Nonetheless, we do hope you will enjoy this video and the thoughtfulness of all the students involved. Has it been a time for closer observation of nature, for you and/or the students you know? And might this be one of the positives of the past year? Seeing this video, what feeling do you come away with?
Julie Poynsenby
Thank you for sharing this amazing video. I love the seeming simplicity of the students' observations, their enthusiasm and joy in what they see. I come away seeing hope for the environment and a positive impact on young minds, health and wellbeing. I wish I could see all of the responses!
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Hello Julie, Thank you for your kind remarks.The video you are seeing here was cut down to the required 3 minutes maximum for this Showcase. You way you wish you could see more. Well, you can at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMyb5Koq7E&... Here your will see a wider range of students and their responses.
Laura Larkin
Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow
Hi Jan-
I agree with the other comments about the positivity of the students. I am wondering if the students were able to interact with the other participants around the world in some way? How were the students instructed to report their findings?
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Laura, Thanks for your interest. This question was put to students during the pandemic for a longer video to be shown at our virtual 2020 GLOBE Annual Meeting last July. We reached out to our teachers worldwide and asked them to convey our request to students. We received over a hundred responses. These are just a few of them! No, we did not get the students talking to each other back then, but this project did give rise to our Student Vloggers project. We now, through additional outreach, have identified a cohort of 12 students from all our 6 regions, worldwide, who are sending us regular video feeds about the GLOBE research they are engaged in and also sharing a bit about their lives and schools. We post a new student vlog every Wednesday. We have a monthly zoom call where we get the students talking to each other and it is really quite delightful. You can see the student vlogs here and if you subscribe to our YouTube channel (also here) you will be notified when a new student vlog shows up on Wednesdays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN7KFWATp78&...
Ari Hock
Yes, a much-needed dose of positivity, and even more rewarding to see this kind of international unity around these important ecological challenges. Also great to hear that the students were able to enter into dialogue with each other through your monthly calls.
Bridina Lemmer
Technical Assistance Consultant
This was a wonderfully uplifting video, and I love how students from all around the world were able to share and learn from each other. Can you share a little bit of background about the GLOBE program for those unfamiliar with it? For example, are topics selected for participants, are they more self-directed or is it some combination of the two?
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Bridina, Those are big questions! The GLOBE Program is an international science and education program that engages students and citizen scientists in 125 countries in meaningful research about Earth. Teachers can get trained in the protocols that guide students through an understanding of the Earth system through local workshops, or through online eTraining. From the knowledge they obtain from the protocols, students then create their own self-directed research into topics often related to their own local communities. Students can enter their research projects in our annual International Virtual Science Symposium and receive input from professional scientists and STEM professionals. The general public can become involved too, by downloading the free and really cool GLOBE Observer App to submit measurements of trees, clouds, landcover, mosquitoes... There are so many ways to become involved in The GLOBE Program and with the huge worldwide GLOBE community! Read more about GLOBE at www.globe.gov .Thank you for your questions.
April Bartnick
Danielle Harlow
This is fantastic! The children's observations of how much cleaner the natural areas around their homes all around the world were beautiful.
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Thank you Danielle. Gotta love our young people! They give us hope for the future.
Meredith Hayes
Thank you for sharing! It was fascinating and uplifting to hear these students' observations.
Natalie Stapert
Hi Globe Kids,
We are middle school members of Climate Club DC in Washington DC, USA. We love your video! We would like to connect with you on your climate work. You can reach us on YouTube or Twitter @climateclubdc or you can email our teachers-- nstapert@lowellschool.org. Great work!
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Thanks Lowell students! We'll be in touch with your teacher Ms. Stapert. Looking forward to knowing more about Climate Club DC and yes, lets work together!
David Barnes
Associate Executive Director, NCTM
Thanks Jan for sharing. Love watching the enthusiasm of the kids.
Maybe I missed it but are there resources that students use, or teachers or parents can use with their kids to help them get started in observing? Also, it is wonderful to see them making their own videos. Are there other tools available to them that would allow them to build from the observations to do a math, statistics, modeling, science, … analysis of the situation?
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
HI David, Please see the reply to Bridina above for a basic understanding of how The GLOBE Program works. And yes we are all about providing the tools that students can use to build from their observations to learn more and (for kids in middle school and high school) to engage in research activities that allow them to pursue their own particular interests. We celebrated our 25th Anniversary in 2020... and during the pandemic, with so many students in lockdown, we posed the question "What changes are you observing in nature" just to get them thinking about what was going on outside the confines of their homes and to remind them that observation is the first step in the scientific process. The videos that came in were very touching.. This version you see here is the short 3-minute version just for this Showcase. The longer video can be viewed on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMyb5Koq7E&...
Also, getting back to our 25th Anniversary... we have, over the years, build a huge international network and we encourage collaboration across borders... for international research campaigns ( often involving participation in NASA Earth-observing satellite missions) and for local and regional campaigns as well. Students and teachers meet at annual meetings and at our every-few-years GLOBE Learning Expeditions (GLEs) and if you want to know more about the opportunity to travel internationally to join a GLOBE event, see this video too that shows the last GLE, in 2018, in Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSbHax79PZE&...
Thank you for your questions, David, and read more about The GLOBE Program at www.globe.gov
David Barnes
Associate Executive Director, NCTM
Thanks Jan. Congrats on 25 years! That really is an accomplishment! I'll have a look!
John Moore
Jan, beautiful video of the GLOBE students which not only depicts the international flavor of GLOBE, but how observant students can really be. It is always very motivational for me to see the seriousness of the work GLOBE students are doing around the world, COVID or not! To all the students, and your other classmates, keep up the great work!!
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Thank you John. Your words mean a lot. You've been such a key person in the history of GLOBE. Good to hear from you.
April Bartnick
What a wonderful project! I love it that the students narrated the video. Also, I think it's great that the students create their own research topics in their communities. It's so important to have that sense of ownership in letting students know that they are making a difference. I looked at globe.gov and am looking into becoming involved next year. Thanks for the wonderful and project and resource.
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
April, So good to know that you are interested in joining the globe community! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you in the process. Write to globecommunications@ucar.edu
Zach Mbasu
What a wonderful project! I like the sophisticated and apt explanations, which provide knowledgeable ideas about what the kids have seen in the environment. Excellent!
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Zach, as you know ( and i know having seen your video too) that getting kids to take their knowledge from local to global is really transformative for them and good for all of us. Thanks for checking in!
Jacqueline Ekeoba
I love this project. As an instructor for an EPP, exposing my preservice teachers to global competency through global collaboration has been a push and became more possible due to COVID-19. Did you find similar increases in participation due to limitations from COVID-19?
I also wanted to invite to view an informal STEM experience done at University of Houston: https://videohall.com/p/2031
Jan Heiderer
Communications Coordinator, GLOBE Implementation Office
Jacqueline, I love your project too! and your video was very powerful. Thanks for sharing! Also yes...except for some areas in which teachers reported serious trouble carrying on during the pandemic (understandable), I do think that we have experienced a very high level of student engagement overall. We had 242 projects submitted to our International Virtual Science Symposium this year from 20 countries and over 1 million data reported from individuals, mainly using our mobile app The GLOBE Observer.
Natalie Stapert
I love the fact that these kids are still keeping an eye on the health of nature-- despite all that they're going through-- and noticing that now that people are traveling less and less, their communities are healthier. Perhaps we can all draw attention to how nature has healed and begin to think more about how and when we travel and what we travel for. -- Abigail, 8th grade, Washington DC
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.