Use of GLOBE Protocols to Promote the Next Generation Science Standards

GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment – www.globe.gov) provides a powerful set of tools to assist K-12 teachers in engaging students in the study of the earth's systems. GLOBE is not a curriculum, but rather a set of protocols designed for an international community to engage in meaningful and relevant studies of the environment. GLOBE has just seen its 20th year and is still relevant for K-12 education as the country shifts school science instruction to reflect A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC, 2012).

The Framework, led to the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Essential to achieving the vision of the NGSS and Framework is the active participation of students in using science and engineering practices to develop and demonstrate understanding of core ideas. Critical to the NGSS is the practical demonstration of student understanding through the development of models, presentations, explanations, arguments, or projects through performance assessments. Earth and space science, in particular weather and climate, have received a greater emphasis in the NGSS. Unfortunately, curriculum that supports the NGSS is lagging behind implementation. GLOBE, with its emphasis on students' actively developing questions and designing investigations offers a means to increase student interest in atmospheric science and provide a means for teachers to develop invigorating, challenging, and meaningful lessons for their students.

Fort Hays State University developed a teacher workshop for middle and high school teachers, Improving Climate Education through Field Observations and Data Analysis*, designed to introduce teachers to the GLOBE protocols for the atmosphere (pressure, temperature, humidity, clouds, contrails, surface temperature, precipitation, max-min temperature, and aerosols), data entry and analysis using the GLOBE data analysis tools, and implementation plans in the classroom. The workshop model was successful in increasing the teaching of atmospheric science topics as evidenced by implementation plans, teacher content knowledge related to climate as measured by the Greenhouse Effect Concept Inventory (Keller, 2007) and increasing teacher content knowledge of the science and engineering practices to teach the NGSS.

References

Keller, J. (2007). Development of a concept inventory addressing students' beliefs and reasoning difficulties regarding the greenhouse effect. [PhD dissertation] Proquest Dissertations and Theses 2006. Section 0009, Part 0606 446 pages; The University of Arizona; 2006. Publication Number: AAT 3237466. Source: DAI-B 67/10, Apr 2007.

National Research Council. (2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NGSS Lead States, 2013. The Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

*This work is partially supported through subgrant FHSU#NSF0074156 from the Kansas NSF EPSCoR program administered by University of Kansas Center for Research grant number EPS-0903806.