The GLOBE Program:  Bringing Together Students, Teachers and Scientists to Increase Scientific Understanding of the Earth through Research

Teresa J. Kennedy
Sandra Henderson

GLOBE Program, UCAR
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Citation: Kennedy, Teresa J. and Sandra Henderson. “The GLOBE Program: Integrating Science across the K-12 Curriculum to Promote Worldwide, Inquiry-Based Research.” Children, Youth and Environments 13(2), 2003. Retrieved [date] from http://colorado.edu/journals/cye.

Abstract

Primary and secondary students in the GLOBE program, together with their teachers, work in partnership with scientists to take scientific measurements to bring about a better understanding of the Earth's environment. GLOBE students collect atmospheric, hydrologic, geologic, and biometric data from local study sites in order to monitor conditions in their community and make comparisons with other schools around the world. Students report their data via the Internet to the GLOBE network and to scientists around the world who incorporate GLOBE data in research projects.  Since GLOBE's inception in 1995, more than one million students in over 14,000 schools around the world have taken part in the program.  Currently, students and teachers from 105 countries are actively participating in GLOBE.

Keywords: environmental education; science education; international program

GLOBE, a science and education program focusing on Earth system science is steadily growing, with 105 countries currently participating in the program. Since 1994, more than one million students in over 14,000 schools around the world have taken part in GLOBE, a joint effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of State. GLOBE brings together students, teachers and scientists with the basic goals of increasing scientific understanding of the Earth, supporting improved student achievement in science and math, and enhancing environmental awareness of individuals worldwide.

GLOBE allows teachers to put the concepts of authentic learning, student-scientist partnership, scientific inquiry and standards-based pedagogy into practice on an unprecedented scale. GLOBE encourages all students to behave as scientists and mathematicians while promoting collaboration among all content disciplines in the school.

- Dr. Craig Blurton, GLOBE Director

Primary and secondary students, together with their teachers, are working in partnership with scientists to collect important data for research about the Earth's environment.

As educators, we are challenged to make science exciting and relevant….GLOBE, a program appropriate for the third millennium, meets that challenge.

- John Padalino,
former chair of the National Science Teachers Association's
Environment Education Advisory Board

GLOBE students collect atmospheric, hydrologic, geologic, and biometric data from their school's 90 x 90-meter study site in order to monitor conditions in their local community and make comparisons with other schools around the world. They report their data via the Internet to the GLOBE network, to scientists at NASA, and to other scientists around the world who incorporate GLOBE data with information received from satellites in order to verify and provide reference data on the information received from the satellite imagery. Many satellite missions are actively using GLOBE data for verification measures.

GLOBE students will be contributing to the success of these missions as scientists use their measurements as an integral component of validating what is seen from space.

- Jack Fishman, NASA Langley Research Center

Recent reforms in science and mathematics education has focused on the importance of students' learning appropriate scientific methods and processes through inquiry.  GLOBE provides students the opportunity to do research using their own data and that of their peers around the world.  With GLOBE data, students can propose testable hypotheses, take measurements, analyze data, draw conclusions and publish their results on the GLOBE Website.

Because students collect their own data and can integrate that data with other student data from their own school, nearby schools, or schools across the world, or with data from other sources, they get a taste of what science is like- not just a bunch of facts, but a process of discovery.

- Peggy LeMone, GLOBE Chief Scientist

Since the program's inception in 1994, GLOBE students have reported data from over 10 million science measurements in the areas of atmosphere/climate, hydrology, soils, and land cover/biology.  The resulting global data sets are made freely available via the Internet at www.globe.gov to users including the worldwide environmental science community.  GLOBE students also access these data for classroom studies, research, student-scientist partnerships, and worldwide school-to-school collaborations. For example, Wayne Faas, from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), compares GLOBE student data to co-op (volunteer) data received for purposes of climate monitoring of operational National Weather Service data. He notes that

the NCDC is also using GLOBE student data to validate extreme events such as flash floods, hurricanes, and tropical storms. The advantage of the GLOBE student data is that it arrives in real time, whereas the co-op data comes in by mail and can take as much as a month to be received. The more GLOBE schools we have, the better.

Each GLOBE measurement is part of an ongoing scientific investigation selected through the National Science Foundation's peer review process.  Scientists develop measurement protocols and instrument specifications to ensure that the data collected by the students are accurate and consistent.  These scientists are using GLOBE data for research about the current state of the Earth as well as looking at the dynamics of environmental change, and are also continually reviewing GLOBE data reports in the archive for quality control purposes.

The comprehensive suite of GLOBE measurements that is being collected by students is critical for Earth science research, for assessing current conditions, for monitoring changes and for driving, testing and creating models for predictions into the future.

- Dr. Elissa Levine, GLOBE Scientist,
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

GLOBE as a Tool for Interdisciplinary K-12 Study

The GLOBE Teachers' Guide and other educational materials such as cloud and soil charts, instructional slides, and Web pages provide teachers with the science content and education methodologies needed to implement GLOBE in their classroom.  Materials include specific instruction for the protocols used to take GLOBE measurements, information about environmental science topics providing a context for student measurements, and age-appropriate, inquiry-based learning activities that involve students in the whole process of science that can easily be incorporated into their classrooms. Videos demonstrating the various GLOBE protocols are also available. GLOBE is not a curriculum but rather a resource for GLOBE teachers to use in their schools and classrooms.  For implementation in the U.S., GLOBE teaching materials are aligned with U.S. national education standards.

Because GLOBE partners represent over half the countries in the world, with schools on every continent, in every time zone, and representing virtually every type of biome, the program naturally provides many resources representing every aspect of the curriculum.

Because of GLOBE, I realized that I came to take a much broader view of what ‘local' means to me. Now, my students and I feel just as connected to that rainforest in Central America or the Outback of Australia as to the stream that flows near our school.

- GLOBE Teacher Richard Rosenblum, Poway, California.

The unique aspect of GLOBE is that it can bring virtually every classroom in a school together to work on a single project with other students and scientists on an international level.

GLOBE is an opportunity for students to see themselves as possible future scientists because they are actually being encouraged to work like scientists. We are totally committed to this program because of what it does for kids.

- GLOBE Teacher Vicky Christenson,
Denton Independent School District, Texas.

Students concentrate on protocols in their science classrooms and math when learning scientific research methodologies and manipulating data sets. Technology classrooms utilize GLOBE data sets to create elaborate charts, graphs and maps, comparing their findings with other areas around the world to examine data critically. Science integration across the curriculum using GLOBE materials promotes in-depth, world-wide, inquiry-based research .  Students have the opportunity to build weather stations in their industrial technology classrooms while students in agricultural education classrooms can actively assist scientists and farmers in the field to better track environmental events affecting crop production.

It is also possible to incorporate GLOBE into the arts and humanities (art, drama, drawing, music, photography), and language arts (descriptive and technical writing), centering the entire academic experience around scientific themes. For example, a rt skills may be developed as students work with contour maps, draw landscape diagrams, and study soil colors. Students learn about photography as they take pictures of their local study sites and describe the pictures in written as well as conversational settings. GLOBE story books provide elementary students with a connection to many of the science protocol areas targeted by the program, while the GLOBE Teacher's Guide provides content information for reading activities at the secondary level. Descriptive and technical report writing about inquiry projects helps students hone their writing skills, and incorporating GLOBE into projects that require independent research on different countries affords students opportunities to gain in-depth cultural understanding and to build global collaborations. The GLOBE program also supports the multicultural study of social studies and geography by providing students with hands-on experience in basic geography skills such as understanding latitude, longitude, scale, map elements, and spatial analysis.   The Sound of GLOBE, a compact disc featuring music written and performed by GLOBE participants from all over the world, is a wonderful addition to the social studies and music classrooms.

GLOBE provides authentic, life-centered curricula and opportunities for meeting the special needs found in inclusive classrooms of students with a broad range of abilities and learning styles. Furthermore, opportunities for cross-age tutoring encourage school-wide collaboration, respect for the background and perspectives of all students, and enhanced content learning and cooperation. GLOBE activities are also well-suited for after school clubs and community service-learning projects. 

GLOBE is an excellent standards-based venue for conducting projects involving comparative studies between the 105 different countries involved in the program, consistent with Secretary of Education Rod Paige's priorities for international education.  A past press release stated that the Department's first policy priority is “increasing U.S. knowledge and expertise about other regions, cultures, languages and international issues.”

Additionally, foreign language classrooms are provided with authentic opportunities for communication in many languages through GLOBE School-to-School emails (GLOBE Mail) and Web chats, which provide interactive ways for students to work on scientific projects with other schools across town or around the world. Authentic materials ready for classroom implementation are available in all six United Nations' languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), and at least part of the GLOBE Teacher's Guide is now available in Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, and Thai, with many other materials becoming available in other languages through GLOBE's international partners. GLOBE students are introduced to other languages and cultures as they engage in projects and discussions with one another, and with world experts in the disciplines they are studying.

GLOBE also provides teachers working with English Language Learners (ELLs) the opportunity to assist their students to acquire English literacy skills in the regular classroom while learning the science curriculum outlined for their grade level. GLOBE provides linguistically diverse students with access to high-quality science information by communicating in their first language. Moreover, participating in GLOBE, these students have the opportunity to assume leadership positions with their peers when the discussions and Internet exchanges occur with other students from their home countries. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the Hispanic population in the United States, the nation's largest minority group, is roughly at 37 million. GLOBE is a means to create an enrichment program that includes the Hispanic student population in the school while enhancing the academic achievements of the entire student body, ultimately integrating literacy skills in reading and writing with all disciplines in the school.

GLOBE allows teachers to collaborate between disciplines, provides students with a more integrated view of their own learning, and enables all students to see the interconnection between the various subjects they study.  Student motivation to learning is peaked when they are given a sense of meaning in regard to their studies.

Dissemination of Inquiry-Based GLOBE Research

GLOBE teachers and students are provided with Web space to publish research projects, giving them the opportunity to complete their research as other scientists do- by communicating their results. Younger students might simply interpret graphs and maps, make visual comparisons, or use their counting and arithmetic skills. As students advance, they might examine statistics and errors and then go on to even more advanced analyses using spreadsheets or GIS. GLOBE provides the beginning tools for analysis, subsequently making it easy for students to move the data into other software programs for more advanced analysis. Simply put, student research completes the GLOBE experience for students, and helps teachers integrate science, as scientists practice it, into their curricula.  GLOBE also organizes International Learning Expeditions and Conferences that provide students with opportunities to discuss their research on a world-wide scale.

Conclusion

GLOBE provides authentic, life-centered curricula and opportunities for students in a variety of situations.  It allows teachers to collaborate across disciplines, provides students with an integrated view of their own learning, and enables students to see interconnections among the various subjects they study. Students behave as scientists and mathematicians while working in all aspects of the curriculum, and teachers weave interdisciplinary lessons into everyday classroom teaching.

The academic benefits of student participation in GLOBE's interdisciplinary program have been documented extensively through SRI International. SRI annually evaluates the performance of the GLOBE Program using student and teacher surveys, interviews and site visits.  SRI has found that participation in GLOBE increases the likelihood that teachers will engage their students in doing science (such as making measurements or observations, applying concepts, and interpreting data) rather than limiting their students to memorizing concepts and definitions of terms.  Teachers have reported that GLOBE improves students' higher order thinking skills through activities such as interpreting data and drawing inferences.  Further, teachers have also reported that involvement in GLOBE activities increases not just students' ability to take the environmental measurements included in the program, but also their ability to broadly apply sound principles of sampling and data collection and to interpret data.

1998 Nobel Laureate Dr. Leon Lederman praised GLOBE as the “quintessentially ideal program for involving kids in science.” Dr. Lederman further stated,

GLOBE teaches science content and also the process of science. Facts are important, but the younger students are, the more important it is to learn the process of science. Science isn't about providing answers as much as it is about asking questions. As a hands-on program, GLOBE provides opportunities for teachers and scientists to talk informally with kids and get them to ask questions.

SRI has concluded that GLOBE is an ambitious attempt to put the concepts of authentic learning, student-scientist partnership and inquiry-based pedagogy into practice on an unprecedented scale (Penuel and Crawford 2001).  Several states have developed and implemented assessments that yielded statistically significant evidence that GLOBE enhances science and mathematics learning (Coleman and Penuel 2000). SRI has also noted that the GLOBE learning model is consistent with scientific inquiry and collaborative learning approaches advocated in contemporary school reform initiatives. 

Possibly the most significant outcome of this program is still decades away in its realization: the availability of real-world scientific data which these children are actively recording and reporting to the professional scientific community, through the infrastructure established by GLOBE.

- GLOBE teacher Richard Erdlac, Midland, Texas

For More Information

The GLOBE Program is implemented in schools, both U.S. and international, under the guidance of teachers who have participated in teacher-training workshops.  These professional development workshops enable teachers to guide students in taking the measurements according to scientific protocols, in using classroom computers and the Internet in a meaningful way, in using GLOBE data in student research, and in creating partnerships among students at GLOBE schools around the world.  More than 24,000 in-service and pre-service teachers from over 14,000 schools have participated in GLOBE workshops in preparation for implementing GLOBE in their schools.

The first step in becoming a GLOBE teacher is to attend a training workshop. Schedules for workshops and registration forms are available on the GLOBE website at www.globe.gov which has specific contact information related to GLOBE activities in your locality.  Or, contact GLOBE at the following address:

The GLOBE Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
P.O. BOX 3000
Boulder, Colorado  80307
USA

GLOBE Photo Gallery

Reference

Coleman, E.B. and W.R. Penuel (2000). “Web-Based Student Assessment for Program Evaluation.” Journal of Science Education and Technology 9(4): 327-342.

Penuel, W.R. and V.M. Crawford (2001). "Developing a GLOBE Assessment in North Carolina." Paper presented at the Sixth Annual GLOBE Conference, Blaine WA, July.

Dr. Teresa Kennedy leads the International and U.S. Partnership program in the GLOBE Directorate. She is responsible for ensuring that the development and ongoing support of GLOBE partnerships are fully integrated with science and education activities and systems development. Teresa is a member of the Executive Committee, leads the Partnership Support working group, and participates in the ESO working group.

As the GLOBE Education Program Manager, Dr. Sandra Henderson oversees the day-to-day operations of the Education, Science, and Outreach (ESO) component of GLOBE. She also manages development of the new on-line course component of GLOBE in support of the GLOBE Professional Development Institute.  Sandra facilitates communication between the GLOBE education staff, systems staff, partner staff, international staff, and GLOBE headquarters staff on all matters related to the development and delivery of educational materials.