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.