Students' Corner

Impact of GLOBE Programme activities on students

• Globe programme in India helped students to learn hands on science; this is the unique feature of GLOBE, which attracts the teachers and students in implementing the programme in their respective schools.
• Globe provides a scientific approach towards understanding the know how’s of Environment.
• The observation capability of the GLOBE students is enhanced due to precise working on the protocols.

Evidence to determine the impact of the GLOBE program on students

The GLOBE programme has initiated in developing school based projects as assignments to the students.

For Example

• Comparing water quality of two study sites at different seasons.
• Effect of Cloud cover and type on atmospheric temperature.
• Comparing the Soil pH of two different study locations.
• The students has prepared project reports and submitted to their respective schools
• Moreover the students and teachers are now interested in taking up new projects based on Globe instead of only recording regular data.

Student's Role in The GLOBE Program

In the GLOBE Program, students all over the world play the most important role in the worldwide effort to understand the global environment. As a young scientist in the GLOBE Program, the students all over the world would enable other participating students and researchers to learn more about the planet. They collect environmental data from their schoolyard and share their findings and experiences with scientists and other GLOBE students.

Scientists have long been conducting research about the earth's environment to understand how it forms a single and integrated system. But scientists cannot take the earth into a laboratory to study it. Instead, they must collect environmental data from all over the world. Orbiting satellites collect much data about our planet, but people on the ground are essential, particularly for local details and phenomena that cannot be measured from space. As a GLOBE student scientist, they assist other scientists by taking accurate measurements and sharing their data through the internet. They are contributing data about air, water, soil, and vegetation around them. Scientists are using the data collected by GLOBE students to answer questions about environment.

Thus GLOBE is an exciting opportunity for students to gain a better appreciation for the environmental challenges facing the planet and for gaining valuable scientific data that could not otherwise have been gathered.

What will Student do in The GLOBE Program?

The students will carry out a series of investigations that scientists have designed to gather data about the Earth and how it functions as a global system. Student will be using instrument and their own senses to observe the environment at multiple sites near their school. They will record the data they gather, save it in a permanent school data record, and send it to the GLOBE Student Data Server using the Internet and the World Wide Web or email.

The student can therefore, receive vivid images composed of their data and data from other GLOBE Schools around the world, acquire information from a variety of sources, and collaborate with scientists and other GLOBE students and communities worldwide in using these data for education and research.

The measurements taken by the GLOBE students serve two important purposes:

	Participating scientists use these data in their research programs to improve our understanding of the global environment.
	Student not only learn how to carry out a scientifically rigorous program of Earth observation, but also learn to use their own measurements, together with data from other GLOBE schools, as a key part of their study.

In addition to carrying out these measurements in collaboration with GLOBE Scientists, students have the option of doing some of the learning activities with their teachers. Each of the protocols and learning activities include a designation of recommended grade levels, in three categories:

Beginning Ages 5-9 years
Intermediate Ages 10-13 years
Advanced Ages 14-18 years

The students in the GLOBE Program will observe and make measurements, record data, come to understand accuracy and precision, share their data with other students and scientists, conduct labs, formulate questions, test hypothesis, and develop theories to make sense of data. They will work with real data, some that they collect, and some that they obtain from other GLOBE schools around the world.

Importance of the data collected by the GLOBE Students

While scientists already have access to much data about Earth, GLOBE students will provide important new data to help the scientists.

	The GLOBE student data is worldwide, providing measurements from thousands of locations.
	Another value is that students do several different types of measurements at the same time, enabling scientists to study how Earth's land, air, water, and biological systems interact.
	GLOBE students contributes their own analysis on the different measurement taken in the local study sites. In this way, they are becoming the world'sexperts in their study area.

Key Educational Elements of the GLOBE Program

	Selecting local study and sample sites - Based on the guidelines given in the GLOBE
	Submitting the data - All data should be submitted to the GLOBE Student Data Server. The most common way to submit data is by computer and the Internet.
	Doing the learning activities - Each investigation has a set of learning activities that help students in learning more about the science domains, the instruments and procedures for the measurements, and the ways that students and scientists can ;use the data collected. The learning activities can be adapted according to the local needs.
	Using GLOBE systems on the Internet to explore and communicate - GLOBE has created some powerful computer software, which enables us to communicate with other schools and with the GLOBE scientists.
	Promoting student investigation - The GLOBE Program enable students in doing their own investigation at local site.

GLOBE PROTOCOLS

Atmosphere Investigation
Hydrology Investigation
Soil Investigation
Land Cover Investigation