Students Around the World Engaged in Climate Science (Invited)

One of the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) earth system science projects, Monitoring Seasons Through Global Learning Communities also called Seasons and Biomes, has engaged primary and secondary teachers and their students in weather and climate studies in collaboration with scientists and community experts. In this worldwide inquiry- and project-based initiative, students have been monitoring indicators of interannual variability in seasons, such as green-up and green-down of plants, air and soil temperature, soil moisture, precipitation, cloud types, percent cloud cover, as well as learning the difference between weather and climate. They have used standardized scientific measurements developed in GLOBE for investigations on atmosphere, soils, hydrology, land cover and phenology as well as those developed in Seasons and Biomes, such as ice seasonality protocols, frost tube and mosquito protocols. Studies have ranged from individuals to small groups of students, classes to schools, local to regional to global reach and involvement. Global learning communities have formed through professional development workshops conducted by Seasons and Biomes in the U.S. and other countries (more than 1600 educators in 51 countries) as well as through collaborative projects like the cross-continent videoconferences, GS-Pals project facilitated by GLOBE Alumni, the Mt Kilimanjaro expeditions, Mosquito studies in Thailand, and Permafrost and Active Layer Monitoring (over 22,000 students). Seasons and Biomes and GLOBE have provided the tools and infrastructure for observing, measuring, recording, archiving, and analysis of data, including venues for communicating results. Students have presented their projects locally, nationally and internationally and have contributed to climate studies and cross-cultural enrichment.