Building Bundles of GLOBE Activities: Facilitating Urban Teachers Implementation of Project Based Learning

Through our professional development (PD) work, we have found that elementary and middle school teachers in an underserved community value investigative protocols offered by GLOBE (globe.gov). Nevertheless, they have also expressed to us that without overarching themes the GLOBE protocols appear as unconnected bubbles of activity. We have also observed these teachers struggle to find a unified approach to their Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) learning outcomes. Here we report how bundling related GLOBE activities and working with teachers to implement them in a connected way can provide a unified approach to district NGSS learning objectives.

This report is based on our work developing an Earth as a System theme centered on GLOBE phenology protocols: Bottle Biology, Phenological Gardens, Green-Up, Green-Down, Lilac Phenology, and Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds. In 2017, we planted phenological gardens at four schools and supported grades 2 through 6 teachers in using their gardens. We also provided classroom support for bottle biology. These activities address NGSS disciplinary core ideas including: LS1-organism structures and processes; LS2-Ecosystems interactions, energy, and dynamics; LS4-Biological evolution unity and diversity; ESS2-Earth's systems; ESS3-Earth and human activity. The activities cover all NGSS cross cutting concepts and incorporate science practices in the classroom.

We further bundled the phenological protocols with more generic GLOBE instrument based activities of measuring air, surface, and soil temperature. Such data collection can be done yearlong, offering teachers the means to conduct extended project based learning (PBL) with research questions connected to the seasons and their school environs. Such PBL connects the three dimensions of the NGSS: disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and science and engineering practices.

Based on the positive feedback received from participating teachers, we are working to bundle other protocols around big themes such as Urban Heat Islands and Urban Hydrology. The goal of our PD with bundled GLOBE activities is to provide teachers with resources for their students to pose research questions and conduct investigations connected to big themes of Earth as a System while satisfying NGSS learning objectives.