by Gillian Puttick and Harold McWilliams
TERC

Table of Contents: Introduction What do GLOBE schools do? Investigation Areas GLOBE data and the internet Measuring Land Cover Conclusion References Keywords: TERC, curriculum, earth science, online learning, professional development,GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), technology integration, web-based learning.

Introduction

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment - GLOBE - is a hands-on environmental science and education program involving K-12 students in schools around the world. It is a partnership of scientists, teachers, students and schools and communities that are linked online at the GLOBE Web site. Launched by Al Gore on Earth Day 1994, GLOBE is funded by NASA and NSF and is currently managed by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Colorado State University.

The goals of the GLOBE program are to:

GLOBE students learn and do authentic science while helping scientists study the environment by posting their data to GLOBE via the GLOBE website. Protocols for conducting scientific investigations have been developed by GLOBE scientist partners in their areas of interest, grouped in Atmosphere/Climate, Hydrology, Land Cover/Biology or Soils. The GLOBE measurements that students undertake in any of these areas were chosen using the following criteria:

• The data have research significance;
• The procedures can be done by primary and secondary school students; and
• The equipment needed is inexpensive enough for schools to purchase.

What do GLOBE schools do?

GLOBE teachers become proficient at implementing the protocols and activities by attending summer workshops sponsored by the GLOBE program. Once registered as a GLOBE school, teachers and students establish a Study Site of 15 x 15 km centered on the school. From GLOBE they obtain a Landsat image 512x512 Landsat pixels in size, centered on the school which grounds all further work at the school and allows them to pinpoint the location of sampling sites at the school site. Using the GLOBE Teacher’s Guide, which provides detailed descriptions of the protocols, a larger context of learning activities in which to situate the protocols, and implementation guidance, teachers and students work on protocols they choose (Table 1). Depending on its level of commitment and individual teacher expertise, a school can develop, over time, a full classification of atmosphere, hydrology, land cover and soils at the site.

Investigation Areas

Table 1. Some of the protocols described in the GLOBE Teacher’s Guide.

Atmosphere/Climate	Hydrology	Land Cover/Biology	Soils	Phenology
Cloud	Transparency	Land cover classification	Field characterization	Snow pack H2O equiv.
Temperature	Temperature	Manual mapping	Bulk density	Budburst
Precipitation	pH	Clustering	pH	Hummingbirds
Aerosols	Conductivity	Accuracy assessment	Gravimetric moisture	Green up/ Green down
Barometric pressure	Salinity	-	Temperature	-
Relative humidity	Dissolved O2	-	Particle size distribution	-
Surface ozone	Alkalinity	-	Soil fertility	-
Water vapor	Nitrate	-		-

GLOBE data and the Internet

Using the GLOBE investigation protocols, students first collect and record data. Next, they enter class data at the GLOBE website. These data then become available to GLOBE students and scientists worldwide. Teachers direct students to the Web site to access data sets for individual days, annual aggregates, regional, national or international areas for spatial and/or temporal comparisons. On the interactive Web site, students can create maps and graphs so that they can address further investigations. For example, students at Guillen Middle School in El Paso TX compared annual changes in air temperature and precipitation during 2000 in Texas and in Chile to investigate seasonal changes globally (Figure 1).

Measuring Land Cover

A protocol of interest to conservation biology is the Land Cover protocol, mostly used by high school teachers and their students. The GLOBE land cover protocol is based on MUC, which stands for a version of the UNESCO Classification (1973), modified for GLOBE by a group of researchers at the University of New Hampshire. The MUC system categorizes natural land cover into seven biome types, open water, cultivated land or urban land (Figure 2).

GLOBE land cover investigations have made a significant contribution to the verification (“ground-truthing”) of Landsat images. Scientists need to use ground-based data to verify the accuracy of maps made from remote sensing observations, and GLOBE student measurements help them do this.

Teachers can engage their students in land cover studies at varying levels of effort. For example, students can determine land cover on the ground keyed to the MUC system, they can determine land cover off of their Landsat image manually using transparent overlays, or using software available from GLOBE. Once they have performed these measurements, they submit land cover data, a GPS reading and site photographs to GLOBE. They can also perform accuracy assessments themselves using the same validation process that a scientist might use. Finally, they can choose to monitor change in land cover over time.

Conclusion

Since GLOBE's inception in 1994, 104 countries have become GLOBE partners, and 23,000 teachers in 13,000 schools have been trained worldwide. GLOBE has sponsored several international student and scientist conferences where students share the results of their GLOBE work with scientists from around the world. The most recent (The GLOBE Learning Expedition) was held during the summer of 2003 in Croatia. GLOBE students continue to monitor and study the global environment, having now submitted more than 10 million measurements to the GLOBE database using the Internet. The Internet has emerged as a crucial structure, not only allowing worldwide data collection and data sharing, but linking thousands of teachers, students, and classrooms around the world.

References

GLOBE Program. http://www.globe.gov

UNESCO. (1973). International Classification and Mapping of Vegetation, Series 6, Ecology and Conservation. Paris France: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

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The views and opinions expressed in all articles that appear in "Conservation Perspectives" are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NESCB.