Lessons Learned from Conducting an International Student Climate Investigation: Data, Collaboration and Social Networking

The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is an international science education program engaging K-16 students from 110 countries around the world in scientific observations and analysis. The GLOBE Program is embarking on a new journey to engage over a million students in taking their data collection a step further – to engage them in climate research. The Student Climate Research Campaign will officially launch in September 2011. In order to reach the goal of engaging a million students in climate research, smaller mini-investigations are being designed to develop a scalable model. The first mini-investigation, The Great Global Investigation of Temperature (GGIT), will take place in fall 2009.

This presentation will share the results of the fall 2009 Great Global Investigation of Temperature with a focus on the pedagogical lessons learned during the 2 month mini-investigation related to international collaboration and student-scientist interaction. The GGIT will engage 25 middle and secondary school classrooms from 10 countries in temperature data collection, analysis and comparison with historic temperature measurements local to each classroom. Students will collect temperature data for one month following scientifically valid data collection. They will analyze their data using a web-based GIS interface and share their findings with NASA scientists participating in the investigation.. Finally, they will compare their findings with an historic dataset of temperature collected in their region. The student learning goals of this mini-investigation include understanding what data can and cannot tell us, gaining a perspective for weather versus climate by examining spatial and temporal variability of data, and understanding the global nature of temperature by comparing local findings to those of students in other parts of the world. This investigation is unique in that it (1) provides opportunity to network and collaborate with classrooms around the globe, (2) enables comparison of student data with that of the local historic climate record, and (3) facilitates interaction with NASA scientists.