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NASA’s GLOBE Mission Earth Connects with the International GLOBE Community

NASA's GLOBE Mission Earth Connects with the International GLOBE Community


NASA's GLOBE Mission Earth (GME) project extends its reach to GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program students all over the world. Recently, GME work has supported students in England, Malta, and Thailand.

On Friday, May 6th, students participating in the Girl's Day School Trust (GDST) Space Technology Programme from Sutton High School, Sheffield High School, and Oxford High School congregated at the GDST Office in Westminster, England for their end-of-year student conference (More information about the conference: https://bit.ly/3O1a2xb). The GDST Space Technology Programme bridges common foundation skills needed between the space sector, engineering, and computer science. The students presented their outcomes from exploring space science requirements and Python-based programming projects focusing on NASA Earth data correlation and analysis, physical motion sensor pattern classification, and remote environmental sensor and imager data collection for Artificial intelligence (AI) processing. A guest panel made up of space industry professionals, who delivered resources and online presentations to the group at different stages during the year, attended to offer feedback. The panel included Elizabeth Joyner of Earth Science Data Systems out of NASA Headquarters, Dr Bradley Hegyi and Angela Rizzi from the the My NASA Data program (NASA Langley Research Center), and Principal Investigator Dr. Kevin Czajkowski from the NASA GME team (University of Toledo). Dr. Czajkowski and John Moore served as mentors to the students participating in the GDST Space Technology Programme from November 2021 to April 2022, a connection made when teacher Ms. Nicola Buttigieg attended an online presentation about using My NASA Data (https://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov) given by Elizabeth Joyner (NASA Langley) in 2021. Ms. Buttigieg used NASA Earth Data via My NASA Data with Python in her coursework last school year with much success and was encouraged to build out her courses for consideration at a national level for a formal K-12 audience. Ms Buttigieg also received a teaching award from NASA for excellence in 21st Century teaching and learning in the fields of Earth Observation Data and Computer Sciences. Learn more about the GDST Space Technology Programme: https://bit.ly/3xFxc7f

Additionally, on May 25th, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT, Dr. Czajkowski presented virtually to students participating in the island state of Malta's 10th Annual Youth Summit on the GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation. As the leader of the Urban Heat Island Effect Surface Temperature Campaign for GLOBE, students were excited to have Dr. C’s feedback on their studies of urban heat island in different areas of Malta. Dr. C, in his closing remarks, encouraged the students to continue studying the impact of urban heat island in their local communities. The following five projects were presented by students:

  • GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation, Zejtun Secondary
  • Is a Tent the Best Solution to Cool Down a Yard?, St. Joseph School
  • Comparing Artificial Turf and Natural Grass Surface Temperatures, B’Kara Primary School
  • Towards integrating the GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation in the Geography coursework option for MATSEC
  • Comparing Surface Temperature Readings across the Maltese Islands, Zejtun Primary School and Gozo Middle School.

The number of GLOBE schools in Malta has expanded from nine to nineteen this year! The Nature Trust Foundation for Environmental Education in Malta has organized the annual Young People’s Summit for the past 16 years to prepare for the Annual Young people’s Eco Schools Parliament in June. Eco Schools is an international program bringing together over 20 million students worldwide. The Virtual summit was held with the support of the Maltese Ministry of Education, Ministry for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning, Ambient Malta, HSBC Malta Foundation, Transport Malta, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Malta. Learn more about the GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation on their Facebook page: https://bit.ly/3tjMjAs

NASA's GME project reach also extended to Thailand this year, as Dr. Mullica Jaroensutasinee, professor at the School of Science at Walailak University in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand connected with Dr. Czajkowski to arrange for Orranan Chuachart, an undergraduate Walailak University student, to study at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio this summer as part of their Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Olawale Oluwafemi, a Ph.D student at the University of Toledo, will serve as her mentor, and Orranan will spend 6 weeks on campus and at the Lake Erie Research Center, studying urban heat island using in-situ observations and remotely sensed images. Learn more about the University of Toledo's Research Experience for Undergraduates: https://www.utoledo.edu/nsm/lec/reu/


NASA's GLOBE Mission Earth project, led by the University of Toledo, is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC54A and is part of NASA's Science Activation Portfolio. Please visit https://science.nasa.gov/science-activation-team/globe-mission-earth to learn more.

Students virtually attending The GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation presentation at Malta's 10th Annual Youth Summit.
Students virtually attending The GLOBE COOLING DOWN Students Investigation presentation at Malta's 10th Annual Youth Summit.