GLOBE Training

On October 30th, Audubon at Francis Beidler will become a U.S. GLOBE partner and Director of Education, Mark Musselman will become a certified GLOBE trainer. The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program that unites students, teachers, and scientists from around the world in study and research about the dynamics of Earth’s environment. Over a million GLOBE students in more than 19,000 schools located in over 100 countries are taking important environmental measurements, using their data in their own research and also making it available to scientists around the world. Over 16 million student measurements are recorded on the GLOBE Web site!

The goals of the GLOBE program are:

• To enhance the environmental awareness of individuals worldwide.
• To increase scientific understanding of the Earth.
• To improve student achievement in science and mathematics.

Many of the GLOBE measurement are part of ongoing scientific investigations selected through the National Science Foundation’s peer review process. Scientists have developed measurement protocols and instrument specifications to ensure that the data collected by the students are accurate and consistent. Investigation areas in which students collect data are: atmosphere and phenology, hydrology, land cover/biology, and soil. Students use global positioning system (GPS) receivers to accurately locate all sites where they collect data. There are several measurements conducted under each investigative area. Many scientists and their teams continue to review GLOBE data reports in the archive for use in their research as well as for quality control purposes.

GLOBE is an interagency program funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), supported by the U.S. Department of State.

As a U.S. GLOBE Partner, Audubon at Francis Beidler Forest will recruit teachers into the program, provide training for these teachers so that they may teach students to carry out GLOBE investigations and data collection in a consistent and accurate manner agreed upon by the international environmental science community, and help provide teachers and their schools the support and guidance they need to ensure the sustainability and growth of the program in the years to come.

We will do this by implementing GLOBE protocols during school field trips to Beidler Forest, during summer camps, and during teacher-training workshops hosted here in the swamp.

For more information on the GLOBE Program go to http://www.globe.gov/