The GLOBE Program's Student Climate Research Campaign: Empowering students to measure, investigate, and understand climate

The GLOBE Program's Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRC) is a two year campaign focused on empowering students to measure, investigate, and understand the climate system in their local community and around the world. Schools can participate in the campaign via three mechanisms: climate foundations, intensive observing periods (IOPs), and research investigations. Participation in year one of the SCRC focused on increasing student understanding and awareness of climate. Students in 49 countries participated through at least one activity. These activities included joining a quarterly webinar, completing the online learning activity, “What is your Climate Classification”, collecting and entering data during one of the two IOPs, Climate and Land Cover and Great Global Investigation of Climate, or completing an online survey. The year also included a video competition with the theme of Earth Day 2012, as well as a virtual student conference in conjunction with The GLOBE Program's From Learning to Research Project. As year two continues, it is expected that students will increase their understanding of and ability to conduct scientific research focused on climate, and improve their global awareness through collaborations among students, teachers and scientists that are focused on understanding the Earth as a system. In addition to the continuation of activities from year one, year two will see an increase in the number of webinars offered, a calendar competition, the introduction of two new IOPs (Phenology and Climate and Surface Temperature Field Campaign), and a culminating virtual student conference. This presentation will touch on highlights from year one and look ahead to the remainder of the campaign.