We are happy to answer any questions you may have about supporting teachers from all over the US. One of the most important assets of GLOBE is the network of GLOBE Partners at colleges, universities, professional development organizations, NASA, and informal science centers, among others. GLOBE Partners are familiar with the needs of the local community they serve and with the GLOBE Program. Many successful student research projects can be traced back to collaboration between a teacher and GLOBE Partner working on tailoring what classroom research looks like within the framework a particular teacher has to work.

Hi Matt! Always great to hear from you. Each year we revisit the grade span that the events are geared to engage, which is 5-12. We specify middle and high school because we are small at this time and want to make sure that all students have an opportunity to participate in activities. Having separate activities for elementry, middle, high school and college level students is probably out of our reach until we can grow enough (in budget and staff) to accommodate a larger age range. Peer review is also an important component of the event and I forsee some challenges there too. Perhaps one national GLOBE undergraduate/community college Student Research Symposium might be worth thinking about? Are you in? :-)

Matt, I would encourage community college and undergraduate students to submit their research to their state Academy of Science.  Most states have an annual meeting, a journal, or both.  I know in Iowa, the Academy of Science offers greatly reduced registration for students and a welcoming atmosphere for new scientists.  It also helps students network with faculty from across their state and learn about summer ur, reu, and other opportunities.  GLOBE related research would be very welcome.

Hi Jake! Thanks for your comments and questions. Last year we had 266 students participating across all 6 Symposia, and this year we anticipate a slight increase in our numbers. Most schools bring a small number of students, and they have many different ways of choosing students to attend - some do hold local symposia, some make decisions based on interest or classwork. We actually wrote an article on this topic highlighting some of our teachers attending this year! 

Our goal with the SRS is to engage teachers and students that don't already compete in similar events, and may be newer to the research process. One way we accomplish this is by allocating travel funding to schools to schools that are new to these events, and that are in underserved and underrepresented communities. We also rely on our many wonderful GLOBE Partnerships to reach out to schools in their local communities. In reality, we end up with a mix of new and repeat teachers. This leads to many great opportunities for new and veteran teachers to network and build community. However, we are working on strategies to recruit new teacher-student teams to the events. We would love ideas! 

I appreciate the goal to encourage those newer to the research process. There are those schools and/or teachers that participate in many different ways, providing their students with a rich array of resources and opportunities, and many more that are not active in research-based activities or projects, making it much more difficult for students to engage themselves. Are there particular tools or strategies that you encourage your GLOBE Partnerships to employ to try to bring teachers or schools on board that have not previously been very engaged in research-based projects?

We have a couple tools that we developed and gathered through this project and we do hope to expand the network to get them into more teachers' hands. We provide GLOBE Partners with links and resources to widely share the Teacher Hotline and our Science Practice webpages and  webinars. We send out some other resources like this Planning Guide too. I've described some of the mechanisms below but we don't have a formal delivery of the system since each GLOBE Partners has a different audience and what works for one, may not work for another. Our experience has been that Partners and teachers pick and choose what they need from the lists.

Lots of our encouragement is through Partner to Partner recommendations. GLOBE Partners have their own network to share resources and provide professional development for each other. If someone finds something that works, we encourage them to share it through one of our monthly webinars, our Partner listserve or at the annual North American Regional Meeting. The GLOBE Partner listserve is where Partners post questions and challenges and others can offer solutions. We also host monthly Zoom meetings we call "Watercoolers" where we gather and share ideas that we use in professional development. It is informal but gives us a chance to ask questions and build our community. I stress this because when you are trying new things, I think that trust in your community where you can take a risk, get advice and give it too, is important. These watercoolers have spurred some of the webinar topics such as the Right Question Institute's Question Formulation Technique and the CER framework.

Jake, Great questions.  The teachers I have worked with tend to do best if they start small. Doing  One or two protocols with students and then remain open to the students own questions and interests.  The protocols provide a framework for collecting meaningful data that is immediately useful to scientists.  As students collect data they make observations that lead to "why do we see this?" And " that's weird".  That is when the database, visualization tools, and student reports can help students transition from data collectors to scientists.  

Another way to get inspired is to read the student reports online.  Because these are written by peers, they are relatable.  Students are not intimidated by them (impressed yes!). They can Invision themselves doing the same thing.  

Hi Jake,

I would like to add to the conversation. You stated

"It seems that there are many more schools and students doing GLOBE-based projects than are able to attend the 6 regional sessions."

YOU are CORRECT! 

GLOBE Mission EARTH at the University of Toledo encourages local schools and  students to attend the GME SATELLITES (Students And Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret The Earth from Space) Student Conference at the University of Toledo. We realize that many students may not be able to attend SRS. GME-UT provides the opportunity for students to present their research. This year we had over 200 students present over 100 research projects.

https://smdepo.org/post/10744

If you would like more information, GLOBE Mission EARTH has a video.

Thanks, Jake!

Janet Struble, Project Manager, GLOBE Mission EARTH

Most teachers come to the SRS with the support of a GLOBE Partner, although there are many ways that schools find out about the event (see Tracy's comment below). 

From our evaluation we have found that the majority of teachers (86% in 2018) felt that participating in the SRS improved their ability to integrate science research into the classroom. Teachers felt that it gave them better insight on how to present GLOBE to their students, opened up curriculum options, and that they are better able to help students engage in the scientific process. Some teacher brought new activities and skills to their classroom from the teacher professional development and student activities held at the event.

Many teachers that participate in the SRS also go on to submit projects to GLOBE's International Virtual Science Symposium, attend a GLOBE annual meeting, or return to the SRS in future years.

We do have teachers that participate in the Symposia without a supporting GLOBE Partner but they are very few, and typically are experienced in supporting students in research already. We do find that some Partners help to navigate the pieces that must be in place in just getting to the Sympsosia such as school board support, figuring out transportation, loaning or helping to purchase equipment and being another set of eyes and guidance during data collection. Outside of the research these can also be daunting tasks for first-time teachers. They are jumping right into an overnight event.

One really interesting outcome is that the students return to their schools and advocate for more research experiences in the classroom or as Haley mentioned, come back to the Symposium again and again, collecting data outside of school and sometimes, finding someone else to bring them if their current teacher is not in GLOBE.

Hi Breanne,

All GLOBE schools are invited to participate in the SRS experience. Notification of the regional events comes to GLOBE teachers via email or directly from a GLOBE partner working with a GLOBE teacher/students. The GLOBE website and social media followers are also provided information on the SRS. To learn more about the GLOBE PROGRAM, visit www.globe.gov. GLOBE stands for Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment. It is an international science education program that provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection and the scientific process, and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth system and global environment. As students collect data in the fields of atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and pedosphere (soil), they enter their data into the GLOBE database which is made available to scientists, including NASA, around the world.

The main criterium for participation in an SRS is that the students are engaged in GLOBE research through data collection using GLOBE protocols and/or using data from the GLOBE database to investigate their research question.

tracy 

Advocacy and civics are not included directly within the program but we do have "Community Impact" recognition during the symposia. Many of the students start with questions based on something that they see or hear about as a concern in their local area - erosion near water bodies, the quality of community drinking water sources, health of salmon as a food source to name a few. With that kind of start, we have seen some students who have been inspired to present to their school or town government boards! Another example of using GLOBE locally is this article on a group from Puerto Rico who tested water quality and designed filters after Hurricane Maria! Students attended both the Southeast Symposium and entered their project in the 2018 International Virtual Science Symposium. They also attended the GLOBE Learning Expedition in Ireland that summer!

Hi Brian. This definitely does happen in some schools. We have teachers that will bring newer colleagues to the SRS event to get them excited about GLOBE, or will work to involve other teachers in their schools. As part of our travel funding application we ask them to provide a brief statement on how they can assist in expanding the GLOBE professional learning community locally. Responses include: 

• "We will encourage other teachers to get trained and participate and encourage students and parents to use GLOBE observer."
• "I serve as a mentor teacher for new science teachers in our school. This gives me the opportunity to promote GLOBE in our local community."
• "I will be introducing the elementary aspect of GLOBE to several teachers in our January professional development/ in-service day."