NASA's GLOBE program celebrates 25 years

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Natasha Hope spends her days making sure ships coming into port in New Orleans are following international regulations - particularly those in place to protect our environment. It's a job that puts her environmental science education to good use and one in which she takes pride.

"We make sure they're not coming in polluting the water or the air and that the oil they use is low in sulfur and meets U.S. air quality regulations," she said. "I really fell in love with working on the pollution side because it's directly helping the environment."

Although she has always loved science, Hope credits NASA's Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program with giving her the confidence to pursue a science-oriented career.

"In high school, you can be insecure about your abilities, about who you are. Participating in GLOBE made me feel like I was intelligent, that I have things to offer the world," she said.

GLOBE, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, is an international program that not only engages students and interested members of the public in hands-on science, but gives them the opportunity to contribute their observations to a collective database used by other students, scientists and researchers.

"One of the reasons the science community started looking to students and to citizen scientists for the collection of data was because there just weren't enough scientists to collect data from every single place around the world," said Tony Murphy, GLOBE Implementation Office director. "To date, participants in the GLOBE program have used our scientist-developed protocols to contribute nearly 200 million Earth science observations."

Those observations span the entire Earth system - from the air we breathe to the soil beneath our feet. GLOBE offers two paths for participation: one for students in the educational setting, the other for people of all ages interested in contributing.

GLOBE in Schools
Like many other students, Hope was first exposed to GLOBE through her school. She and her teammates at a small high school in Puerto Rico were tasked with conducting a year-long environmental science project related to that year's (2008) GLOBE theme - sustainability - and presenting their results at the end of the year.

She found the theme particularly relevant to Puerto Rico.

"The island imports a huge amount of its food and produce because the climate can be too hot or too moist for a lot of the staples to grow," she said. "So we tried to make a more sustainable system on the island, experimenting with different types of mulch and simulating different weather conditions to determine what worked best."

Her team landed a spot to present their project at a GLOBE Learning Expedition (GLE) - held in South Africa that year - where they had the chance to interact with scientists and other teams from around the world. It's an experience she says solidified her desire to pursue a science career.

GLEs are among several opportunities available to students in GLOBE schools - schools in which a teacher or teachers have been trained in the program's data collection and research protocols.

Students in these schools, which range from elementary school through the undergraduate level, learn the practices of science through scientist-informed curricula and access to NASA subject matter experts. GLOBE students use what they've learned to conduct investigations in their communities that address real-world problems and can opt to present their research in the annual International Virtual Science Symposium (IVSS). A team of judges evaluates all projects and complete, highly rated projects are entered into a drawing for a chance to present at the GLOBE Annual Meeting, which brings together GLOBE community members, scientists, educators, and partnering organizations from around the world. In 2019, the last year the meeting was held in person, nearly 250 people from 35 countries attended.

"It's a really cool way for students to go through the whole process of collecting data, answering questions and sharing their science," said Julie Malmberg, GLOBE education and outreach team lead. "Just seeing what they're thinking about and how they work with their communities to make a difference is incredible and gives me hope for the future."

This year, hundreds of students from around the world tackled the theme "data analysis" by incorporating GLOBE data into their projects. They had until March 10 to submit research reports, and judging begins March 29.

"We have six regions around the world - Africa, Asia and Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Latin American and Caribbean, Near East and North Africa, and North America - and we have submissions from all of them," Malmberg said. "Some countries, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, for example, have really taken the program and run with it."

Follow along here for updates on projects and winners. For other ways to participate, check out current NASA-sponsored student research campaigns on trees and mosquitoes.

GLOBE Observer for Citizen Scientists
In 2016, GLOBE reached outside the classroom, providing a method for people of all ages to make observations and contribute science-quality data. To participate in this relatively new initiative, prospective citizen scientists need only reside in a GLOBE-participating country and download the GLOBE Observer application on their smart phones.

"GLOBE Observer is a whole new way for people who are outside of the traditional school-centered audience to get involved," said Murphy. "Now, anyone who is interested in supporting environmental science in their community can really learn and engage with the protocols and contribute data."

The app provides information on how to make scientific observations in four specific study areas - clouds, mosquito habitats, land cover, and trees. Citizen scientists can also compare their cloud observations to those taken by NASA satellites and to observations made by other GLOBE users. These comparisons are possible because of the robust data collection and data sharing infrastructure on which the program relies.

Perhaps most importantly, the more observations that are collected and shared, the more our understanding of how Earth systems work can improve.

Interested in trying it out? Click here.

Looking ahead
Since its launch in 1995, GLOBE has increased its reach and impact significantly. The program, sponsored by NASA with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of State, started with 33 countries signing agreements to participate. Today, 125 countries are part of the GLOBE family.

Program managers estimate that between the educational resources provided and direct involvement in school-based programs, some 3 million to 4 million students have benefited from GLOBE. Many alumni, like Hope, went on to pursue STEM careers; some became country coordinators for the program; and even those who chose other paths gained newfound confidence in everything from science to public speaking.

The GLOBE Observer app has 199,525 registered users with citizen scientists already having contributed millions of observations of their own.

So what do the next 25 years look like?
"In addition to harnessing newer technology, I hope that our community strengthens even more in the years to come. These kids that we interact with, directly and indirectly through the program, are the ones who are hopefully going to solve the problems we're facing even today," Murphy said. "We all need to work together and I think our community is a very strong representation of that."

To students considering participating in GLOBE, Hope had this advice:

"Do it. If you love science or even if you don't, try it because you'll be surprised just what you can do and how much you have to offer. It is a true gift."

Video: Celebrating 25 Years of the GLOBE Program

Related Links
GLOBE Observer
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

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