NEWS 2008

Texas GLOBE Partners Attend Training in Colorado

The GLOBE Program Office, located in Boulder, Colorado hosted a weeklong professional development academy for U.S. and international partners. Texas had six representatives at the training and they were provided with many new goals, strategies, and content.

For more information about this training visit the GLOBE DLESE workshop page.

GLOBE’s new focus for the years 2008-13 will be promoting student research at local to global scales.

The mission is: to promote the teaching and learning of science, enhance environmental literacy and stewardship, and promote scientific discovery.  With this in mind, GLOBE has developed four goals.

Increase student achievement across the curriculum with a focus on student research in environmental and Earth system science;

Enhance awareness and support activities of individuals and groups throughout the world to benefit the environment

Contribute to scientific understanding of Earth as a system; and

Inspire the next generation of global scientists.

Each day of training focused on a different topic. The primary effort of Watershed Dynamics has been the continued development of My World GIS to access, visualize and analyze data specific to a watershed investigation. The participants also had the opportunity to examine the interrelationships between land cover/land use and stream flow data from the USGS.

 

 The Seasons and Biomes, had participants conducting hands on activities as well.  Here we are modeling the earth-sun relationship and the reason for our seasons.

The Carbon Cycle Module also had us modeling and role-playing.  We integrated a technology component using the Biomass Model - iSee Player.  Role-playing included the Carbon Cycle Adventure, and a Paper Clip Factory, which demonstrated the use of the one-box model and how this  model can be used to represent complex systems.

FLEXE , From Local to Extreme Environments, gave us another opportunity to go outside and measure extreme temperatures in our environment.  We conducted the GLOBE protocol for temperature and then posted our results on a map of the area.  We also examined some very extreme environments-black and white smokers at the bottom of the sea.  Past research vessels provided video and data for us to examine.

On our last day, we traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Many of our international partners, especially those from Africa saw snow for the first time in their lives.  It was very exciting to share that experience with them.  We used the GLX data collector with the GPS probe, and monitored our exact location.

The Texas Partners want to thank the GLOBE Program Office for hosting a wonderful training event.  We are glad to be part of GLOBE and have the opportunity to meet and work with our international partners.