Back to School: GLOBE Stipend Opportunity! (and other GLOBE news)

Stipends!

Calibrating the soil thermometer.

The South Dakota Discovery Center in partnership with the Space Grant Consortium and 319 Information and Education Project is offering stipends for GLOBE trained educators who enter GLOBE data into the database August 15 - October 31.

The requirements are:

1. Select a minimum of two protocols. 
2. Collect and report data at least once. You MUST report on both protocols.
3. You are encouraged to report more frequently (daily,  weekly). More frequent reporting makes you eligible for a larger stipend. 
4. The minimum stipend is $25 for one report on two protocols. The maximum stipend is $125 for five reports on at least two protocols. A $50 bonus stipend is provided for teachers who report weekly.

Examples

• Teacher A reports on air temperature and cloud cover every day for a week. Her stipend is $125.
• Teacher B reports once on all six El Niño protocols. Her stipend is $125.
• Teacher C reports air temperature every day for a week. She is disqualified from a stipend because she did not select TWO protocols.
• Teacher D reports on surface temperature and soil temperature once. Her stipend is $25.
• Teacher E reports on surface temperature and soil temperature once a week for six weeks. Her stipend is $125 (maximum) and a $50 bonus.
• Teacher F reports on green down and soil temperature once a week for two weeks. Her stipend is $50 and a $50 bonus.

The important thing is to report data! 

Not sure what protocols work with your classes? Look at the alignments between the NGSS and GLOBE resources.

Need support for GLOBE supplies? Apply for a GLOBE minigrant!

E Training

If you want to learn or review a protocol, you can now access the E-training resources. Colleagues can also become fully GLOBE trained teachers through the e-training. Check it out!

Upcoming Professional Development

The South Dakota Discovery Center will offer Elementary GLOBE via STEM Quick Stops starting in October. Educators from all grade levels (K-12) will be eligible to participate during the Aerosols activity unit for an additional stipend! Info coming soon.

Also, a GLOBE practicum to help you get GLOBE on teh ground will be piloted this fall. This online class will allow you to implement GLOBE while reflecting and creating a final portfolio that will be archived for future GLOBE educators to use a library of peer practice.

Let me know...

If you use GLOBE with your students, let me know what you did and how it went. I'm always happy to share your successes.

The SD Discovery Center is blogging! Please follow

We are blogging about what’s happening at the South Dakota Discovery Center!

You can get the must-not-miss news from the SD Discovery Center delivered right to your email inbox. We will be relevant, interesting and – because your email inbox is as busy as ours are – occasional.

Our blog replaces the now defunct e-news (so 2004). We do have a Facebook page and will continue to post there but not everyone is on Facebook (and not everything we post gets shown) so we want to give people more options in how they connect with us.

Subscribe today  at http://www.sd-discovery.org/blog/

GLOBE: PD for the new science standards!

Please forward to your science teacher(s)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Middle and high school science teachers, get your GLOBE on! Meet new standards with GLOBE, an international science and education project sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Feb 20-21, 2016
Mitchell Advanced High
Free!
$45 credit through University of Sioux Falls
Register Online

GLOBE is an international Earth system's monitoring project. Your students will collect and report data on atmosphere, hydrosphere, the biosphere and pedosphere (soils, actually). Real world. Real science.

GLOBE sets your students up for success in doing science. Challenge your advanced students with research projects, engage your struggling students with hands-on learning, stimulate ALL your students with learning about the Earth systems.

But wait! Becoming a GLOBE trained teacher makes you eligible for special opportunities. Coming fall 2016: you have an opportunity to earn a $175 stipend but this will be available ONLY to teachers trained in GLOBE by July 2016.

Contact Anne (annelewis@sd-discovery.com) 605-224-8295 for more information.

2016 SD Envirothon: March 11 at SDSU

The 2016 South Dakota Envirothon will be held Fri. March 11, 2016 on the SDSU campus.

Teams of five high school students test their knowledge and skills in five areas: soils, water, forestry, wildlife and a current issue which this year is invasive species.

The winning team will go on to the North American competition which this year is in Ontario Canada.

This year's event will be a single day event, 9am-5pm. The current issue topic is invasive species. The presentation format will be a poster session. Teams must come prepared with a poster explaining their solution to a challenge that will be issued by January 29th.

Science and ag/natural resources teachers, 4H leaders, and adults from other organizations that serve high school aged youth, we invite you get together a team and compete. Make 2016 your year!

Primary adult coaches receive a $250 stipend and are reimbursed travel expenses. Classroom teachers have substitute fees reimbursed.

If you have questions, contact Anne Lewis by email or phone (605)224-8295.

To pre-register* a team use this form. Sign up today!

Pre-registration is a way for us to start connecting with adult sponsors.

Fall Professional Development

Two exciting opportunities for educators this fall! WET and LEP and GLOBE for Grades 3-8

---

WET and LEP

October 21 9am - 2pm Pennington County 4H office, 601 E Centre St. Rapid City. Connect your students to hands-on learning about the natural world using exemplary, proven activities from WET (Water Education for Teachers) and LEP (Leopold Education Project). WET will equip you to teach about every aspect of water while LEP will draw your students into reflection about the natural world and our responsibility to it through observation and journaling.

Registration

---

Globe for Grades 3-8

GLOBE is an international science and education project that engages students in monitoring earth’s systems through data collection and reporting and participation in research. Sponsored by NASA and the National Science Foundation, GLOBE equips you with resources to help your students meet performance expectations as prescribed by the new science standards.

This hands-on workshop will walk you through the basic protocols in atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. We will identify disciplinary core ideas, cross cutting concepts, and science and engineering practices. Oh, and we will be outside and have fun!

This workshop will certify you as a GLOBE trained teacher. 

Registration

GLOBE on the River

Teachers and preservice teachers: Join us for one day in the classroom and 3 days in the field doing GLOBE protocols.

Make atmospheric observations. Compare soil characterizations in the watershed. Take water quality readings for a longitudinal profile of the river.  Record and classify land cover.

We will be kayaking and primitive camping along the way, journaling, mapping, and reading A Sand County Almanac to give this professional development a robust cross curricular application.

The trip is outfitted, you only need to bring your personal effects and sense of adventure.

Curious about what happens on a field workshop? The photo album tells the story of a typical field workshop.

Friday June 26-Monday June 29
1 credit
$50
Classroom session in Pierre.

Register through the GLOBE website or this form. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dlM9FssE9FTz3y0-RCPYIed-eUmFG9rvmul4nFw0nxY/viewform)

Local photos for world wide project sought.

Families, classes, and individuals can contribute to a world wide project that documents local biodiversity May 15-25. National Geographic's Great Nature Project wants to create a literal and figurative snapshot of animals, plants and fungi that live on our planet.

The South Dakota Discovery Center is championing the project as part of its science and environment outreach.

"The goal is to document as many species as possible world wide over 11 days." says SD Discovery Center special projects director Anne Lewis. "This even includes species you find in the backyard, on  school grounds or at a local park. You don't have to go into the backcountry to participate."

The project calls for technology that most people have at hand; a digital camera and an internet connection. And yes, there is a smart phone app for that through iNaturalist.org.

The Great Nature Project uses the iNaturalist site to host observations. "You don't have to know what you are uploading before you share it," says Lewis. "There is a way to tag observations to request an ID when you share it and the Great Nature Project and iNaturalist community will help. As long as the picture is relatively close and clear, someone usually has the answer."

"Participating will help you learn what plants and animals are around you," says Lewis. 

People who stop in at the South Dakota Discovery Center by May 25 and say they are participating in the Great Nature Project will receive a copy of the Backyard Birds of South Dakota, published by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Park.

Contribute to the Great Nature Project by taking and sharing pictures of local plants, animals or fungi.