The Globe Program

The Globe Program is a NASA-funded global environmental science research project.  Students from around the world collect data about the local atmosphere, climate & weather, soil conditions, water quality, land cover, etc.  Students collect this data according to rigid protocols and standardized equipment and, if their teacher is certified Globe teacher, they can submit their data to an online database that other students, and scientists for that matter, have free access to.
 
They also publish a curriculum that you can follow without any training and use in your classroom, but you will not be able to publish your data.  For many teachers this will not really be an issue.  They have some great activities and you should check them out, especially if you are teaching environmental or earth science.

Living in NYC presents special problems for students and teachers wishing to engage in the program.  Specifically the protocols for studying soil present tremendous difficulties - just finding soil can be a challenge! The parks department is obviously reluctant to allow much digging around and most of the city is covered with buildings, concrete, or asphalt.  I am working with a couple of other people at City College this summer to examine ways that we might implement the soil protocols in NYC. 
 
One of the concerns I have is the relevance issue.  Why is it important in NYC to monitor soil conditions?  Agriculture isn't a great factor, and about the only place where plants grow in abundance is the NYC Parks, which are practically off limits anyway for our purposes.  So we aren't concerned in general about soil quality for crops, the parks are off limits, and we aren't too worried about the topsoil drying up and blowing away - it's already covered anyway with non-living materials! That pretty much leaves monitoring soil for evidence of other environmental factors, such as pollution.
 
Of course, there's also the big picture angle, that students need to be aware of the world outside of their urban environs.  We can study soil locally and make connections to what is happening in areas where agriculture is important and what's happening in forested areas around the world.  What about connections with Regent's Living Environment?  I will probably spend a little time on the soil protocols/activities in looking at ecosystems, the interaction of biotic & abiotic factors, but I doubt that I will have time to do a lot of the activities, given the scope of the living environment curriculum.  On the other hand, I will also be teaching a 7th grade class which includes, in my district's curriculum, both ecology & geology, where the connections with a study of soil are more obvious. 

Summer Work

After swearing that I would not do any summer work this year and instead spend some time with my own children, I again got pulled into doing several school-related projects.

Today I finished the formal but introductory part of a program with Columbia University's GK-12 program, an NSF project that brings together many of the resources of Columbia University with math/science teachers in NYC public schools. Most importantly, perhaps, is the partnership between a Columbia grad student and teachers. In my particular case, I and a colleague from my school will be sharing a grad student from the computer science field. We are discussing ways of bringing his particular expertise into the classroom, thinking about information theory & technology generally and seeing how we might make connections with genetics/evolution, or even ecology. These are just abstract ideas at the moment, and I will discuss them more as we flesh them out and come up with specific activities or lessons.

Of course there's the more concrete benefit of using computer technology in the classroom for more specific content objectives. Part of our training this week involved the use of Vernier Probeware, which we will be able to use in our classrooms next year. Our graduate student (and a team of undergrads if necessary!) will be available to help set up the equipment and run it in our classes. A classic example of the uses of probeware is measuring the changes in CO2 & O2 levels with a plant in a closed container, comparing these levels in light & darkness, relating to photosynthesis & respiration.

Next week I start work on another project, which I will describe in a separate post, but also related to a GK-12 grant at another university. Then, at the end of the month/beginning of August, I will be involved in a summer institute with the NYC Department of Education - not exactly sure yet what that will entail...