NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

By: Jennifer Collings

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program is teaming NASA scientists with the most valuable researchers in the world…students.

Lin Chambers of the Science Directorate was recently named one of four NASA scientists to work with GLOBE in preparing the student research campaign for climate change. Last week, leaders from the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program visited NASA Langley to find ways to enrich their new student research campaign on climate change. With the help of NASA and other scientific partners, this campaign intends to engage more than one million students and teachers in climate research, and enhance climate literacy for millions of citizens between year 2011 and 2013.

The GLOBE program, which has a network of more than 20,000 schools in 110 countries, has been a leader in global student research for the last 14 years. With 55 experimentation protocols, GLOBE collects data worldwide on topics varying from the atmosphere to plants, water and soil. Now that climate change is growing in public awareness, the GLOBE program has implemented a new research campaign to empower students to seek out their own answers to questions about the Earth system.

Students around the world participate in the GLOBE program. Shown here are students making cloud observations in January 2009 in the Czech Republic. NASA

Click image to enlarge

"We want them to have data-rich experiences. We want them to run tests, make mistakes and question results. That is real science," said Edward E. Geary, director of the GLOBE Program.

If the GLOBE program was looking for data-rich experiences, it came to the right place. The Science Directorate, which houses more than 2000 terabytes of atmospheric data, is known for its climate studies and data products that can be processed and packaged to each customer's needs.

"The Science Directorate can offer some important climate data records that could be used in a student research campaign, and also offers connections to a number of key climate missions, including Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO)," Chambers explains.

Before giving their seminar, Geary and his colleague Donna Charlevoix, the GLOBE Climate Research Campaign Coordinator, spoke one on one with Chambers and some of Langley's climate scientists to learn more about how the Science Directorate's research projects could support GLOBE's new initiative.

"We have packaged a lot of data parameters in one place, and it is really up to your imagination as to what scientific questions can be explored using them," explained Paul Stackhouse, the principal investigator for the Prediction Of World Energy Resource (POWER) project. Geary and Charlevoix learned that using data from the POWER project, students could analyze the availability of different sources of energy in their area and develop a renewable energy plan that caters to their resources.

Another science project, known as FLASHFlux, would be able to provide students with cloud data from their area within one week of CERES observations. Clouds play an important role in the climate system, and they are also easy to observe, making them an ideal subject for student climate research. "Clouds are easy for students to study, and when students are able to conduct their own experiments, they are more passionate about what they are learning," Geary explains.

The GLOBE program believes that students need scientific research to be relevant, interesting and full of opportunities to gain the scientific knowledge and technical skills needed to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

"Students get motivated when they get to work and interact with real scientists. Climate is an issue that they will have to face when they are older, so we are giving them the inspiration and tools to take this into their own hands" explained Geary during his seminar.

For more information, visit http://www.globe.gov or http://science.larc.nasa.gov


 
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry