I. Introduction
In recognition of the 25th Earth Day, students all over the world are kicking-off an environmental science and education network that brings together young people, educators, and scientists to study and share information on the global environment.
Vice President Al Gore announced the vision for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE) during last years Earth Day celebration. Over 1,900 U.S. schools have signed-up as charter members of the GLOBE Program in 1995 and over 20 foreign countries have signed agreements to participate in the program.
Three major objectives have been identified for the program: the enhancement of environmental awareness, the stimulation of higher student achievement in science and mathematics, and the acquisition of data on environmental change that will be of value to the science community. This latter objective lays the ground work for GLOBE to be of ultimate benefit to the Mission to Planet Earth program in which tens of thousands of students will make Earth-based observations which can support the remotely sensed data from the Earth Observing System.
The GLOBE Program is designed for K-12 students. Under the guidance of teachers who have attended GLOBE training workshops, the students take regular measurements using protocols and instruments specified by GLOBE scientists. Students then submit their data through the Internet to a central facility located at the NOAA Forecasting Systems Laboratory in Boulder, CO.
Under the leadership of the Scientific Visualization Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, data from students all over the world are processed and combined with other science sources to create global images that are sent back to the students over the Internet for classroom study. In addition, remote sensing images from Landsat and NOAA satellites will be made available to the students. These global images can be viewed on the World Wide Web at www.globe.gov.
GLOBE students use GPS receivers to locate a habitat near their school on which they will carry out ground-truth observations related to a specific 30 meter by 30 meter pixel on the satellite image. The student data will be made available to the environmental science community for use in studying global environmental change. Scientists will give mentoring reports back to the students to let them know what has been learned.
An international group of environmental scientists identified the specific measurements to be made. The National Science Foundation is sponsoring a competitive search and selection for scientists and educators to evaluate and define the evolution of GLOBE measurements and educational materials.
Student measurements fall into three categories atmosphere, hydrology and biology. These categories match nicely with the goals of the Earth Observing System. With student data being reported from thousands of locations around the world, GLOBE can complement the data provided from the larger area satellite images. The GLOBE program is interested in input from the scientific community to ensure that student data are optimized for Mission to Planet Earth support.
Teacher training workshops were held in March and April at 14 Space Grant Universities. Additional workshops are scheduled for the summer.
The GLOBE Program is well underway and already beginning to achieve program goals. GLOBE offers a great opportunity to involve students, their families, their teachers and their communities in the exciting quest of understanding the global environment.
For information on how a school can join GLOBE, write to The GLOBE Program, 744 Jackson Place, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, or email: info@globe.gov. This information is also available on the World Wide Web at www.globe.gov.