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NASA eClips™ Partners with the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative to Develop a NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives

NASA eClips™ Partners with the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative to Develop a NASA Spotlite Design Challenge: Land Detectives


NASA eClips has partnered with the Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer team (part of NASA’s Earth Science Education Collaborative, NESEC) to co-develop and promote the newest NASA Spotlite Challenge: Land Detectives. As NASA Land Detectives, participants are challenged to gather and share evidence to confront misconceptions about Earth's land cover. Land cover is what is on Earth's surface, such as trees, grass, pavement, and buildings.

The Challenge focuses on two misconceptions about land cover: 1) Land cover doesn't change. 2) The land cover of an area doesn't matter. Student teams are asked to select one of the misconceptions to investigate and make a claim to debunk or refute. Teams are then challenged to make observations and gather evidence to support their claim. Student teams write an engaging script and produce a 90 to 120 second video that addresses the misconception. In the video, teams conduct a demonstration/experiment or show how they used GLOBE protocols (GLOBE Observer app or GLOBE data sheets) to disprove the misconception. The videos encourage other students to engage in science by trying the demonstration and the GLOBE Observer app, with the necessary support and supervision.

The NASA Spotlite Challenge: Land Detectives will accept student production team submissions until March 24th, 2023 for the spring semester. Get started: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/resources/sdchallenge/5

The NASA eClips™ project, led by the National Institute of Aerospace, and NESEC, led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, are supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award numbers NNX16AB91A and NNX16AE28A, respectfully. Both projects are part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learners

This cartoon graphic shows children running around outside in beautiful green grass near a river and an urban neighborhood. There are trees and bushes around, with plenty of natural landscape, as well as a wandering tortoise. In the background there's a waterfall, some mountains and a bright blue sky containing a few clouds. The text overlaying the sky reads: NASA eClips & NESEC Spotlite Video Design Challenge: Land Detectives