Introduction

Dear Asia and the Pacific GLOBE Partners,

Message from GLOBE Acting Director Dr. Ed Geary (top)

As we move forward with the Next Generation GLOBE (NGG) Vision, there will soon be new opportunities to do GLOBE in collaboration with the scientists and staff involved in ongoing, Integrated Earth System Science Projects (IESSPs). We are very excited about the possibilities for Country Coordinators and their national implementation teams, teachers and students to participate in these new projects.

We will work closely with you to promote and support grade-level appropriate research projects that are locally and globally relevant to you and to the schools and communities you work with. By participating in one or more of these projects, teachers, students, and community members will have special opportunities to interact with project scientists, learn important science, mathematics, and geography concepts and skills, and collaborate with other project schools and communities. The IESSPs will be selected by the National Science Foundation this summer and as soon as the IESSPs are identified, we will let you know. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing about your current and upcoming GLOBE activities and successes.

You are the power of GLOBE -- Thank you for all that you do!

Best regards,

Dr. Ed Geary
Acting Director,
The GLOBE Program

Announcements (top)

The GLOBE Program Partners with National Geographic Education Foundation
We are pleased to announce that the GLOBE Program has formally begun a partnership with the National Geographic Education Foundation's My Wonderful World campaign to promote geographic literacy. We encourage GLOBE teachers and their students to make geographical connections through their GLOBE science projects. Please send us contact information of teachers you know of who implement GLOBE in their Geography classrooms so that we can feature them through GLOBE Stars and announcements we make in conjunction with this campaign.

Annual Conference and Marine Coastal Symposium, Phuket, Thailand
The 10th Annual GLOBE Conference, from 31 July to 4 August, will be hosted by GLOBE Thailand. If you have not yet registered, now is the time!

This is the first Annual Conference to be held in Asia, and we are excited to once again have opportunities for both formal and informal discussions regarding the exciting regional activities taking place in the GLOBE community. Please take into account the time required for obtaining a visa to enter Thailand; if you require a letter of support, please email globethailand@ipst.ac.th or use the Contact Form located on the Conference Web site.

GLOBE Thailand is also hosting the Marine Coastal Resources Symposium from 27-28 July 2006, just prior to the Annual Conference, at sites impacted by the 2004 Tsunami. There was significant GLOBE student research surrounding these sites, and the symposium will be aimed at observing the change of coral reef and impacts on marine coastal resources, and proposing collaborative projects on the recovery of marine coastal resources. This exciting scientific study symposium is open to all interested participants.

Lodging and sessions for both the Annual Conference and the Symposium will be at the Cape Panwa and Bay Hotels. For more information on both events, please visit the GLOBE Thailand Annual Conference Web site. We hope to see you there and are excited to have Asia and Pacific host an Annual Conference!

Annual Survey
Thank you to all of you who have responded to the Annual Partnership Survey so far! In order to give those of you enough time to complete it, it will be available online until 30 May 2006. If you haven't taken the survey yet, please consider doing so. In order for the GPO to be able to help all of our Partners implement the GLOBE program in your region, we need to know as much about your program as possible, including contact information, activities conducted by your partnership that indicate efforts recruiting, training and mentoring of GLOBE teachers in your region, any efforts towards regionalization, and other relevant information that will assist the GPO to facilitate your implementation efforts. Also, please remember that this information is needed for our required reporting to our funding agencies (NASA and NSF). We need your help to keep our program growing and to confirm active Partnerships so please complete the Annual Partner Survey!

The survey contains seven sections, and you will need your Partner ID and password to access it. You may complete the survey in either one session or in multiple sessions. We hope the survey will help to define your plans for the upcoming year as well as provide new insights on how to strengthen partnerships and promote collaborations in your region and around the world.

If you have any difficulty completing the survey or need a hard-copy version mailed to you, please contact your Regional Desk Officer so that we can assist you by entering your information once the completed survey is received from you.

GLOBE Learning Communities (GLC) (top)

How to Build GLOBE Learning Communities:
Create a Network of Regional Scientists

The GLOBE Learning Community (GLC) concept encourages the participation of a broad range of community members who share a common commitment to supporting teachers and students in the implementation of GLOBE for the benefit of their community. A GLC might begin as a GLOBE Partner based at a university working with teachers and students from primary and secondary schools in the local school district, and then branch out to include parents, youth clubs, scientists, senior citizens, other colleges and universities, daycare centers, museums, businesses, government agencies and more.

As GLOBE Partners and Country Coordinators worldwide anticipate the new IESSPs and the project-based learning opportunities they will provide, the development of local and regional GLCs is of utmost importance. GLCs are essential to the success of GLOBE schools and students because they provide a real-life context for what students learn in the classroom.

So how do we build strong GLCs? The first step is to identify and recruit local and regional scientists to mentor students. The GPO is aware that many Partners and Country Coordinators have already developed noteworthy models to accomplish this, and we are asking you to share your success stories for everyone's benefit. Please send your models to Dr. Sheila Yule, syule@globe.gov, GLC Coordinator, for inclusion in the revised Partner Implementation Resource Guide. Specifically, what would be helpful to the GLOBE community are examples of how your model would serve project-based GLOBE implementation in schools. In order to be included in the next edition of the Partner Implementation Resource Guide, please send your stories in by 1 May 2006.

In an effort to assist our Partners build their GLCs, the GPO has sent introduction letters and Regional Press Kits to all international member university and affiliate representatives of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). For more details on this effort and how you can follow up with the representative in your region, see Building a GLOBE Science Community in the Regional section below.

GLOBE Alumni:

As we have watched GLOBE students grow up and take a more active role in GLOBE over the past 11 years, another tremendous resource for building strong GLCs is taking shape - an emerging network of GLOBE Alumni. These former GLOBE students are continuing to take an active role within local school communities or partnerships, and the GPO would like to help support their efforts to build a worldwide organization. Currently there are two regions formally supporting GLOBE Alumni organizational efforts: Europe (Czech Republic GLOBE Veterans and Estonia's GLOOBUS), and North America (N.A. GLOBE Alumni Association - Canada and the United States).

However, as there are alumni all over the world, the GPO would like to help you explore the GLOBE Alumni resources you have within your region. Please send the names of former GLOBE students in your region who are still active in GLOBE Program implementation, as well as the schools where they received their GLOBE experience, to Dr. Sheila Yule, syule@globe.gov, GLOBE Alumni Network Coordinator, by 1 May 2006. The information will be used to guide the development of a plan for a volunteer program that fits the needs and abilities of the alumni population.

GLOBE Tools for Partners (top)

Updates in the Partner's Corner:

Regional Press Kits:
The GLOBE Program Office has prepared attractive region-specific "Press Kits" to assist all Partners in collaboration-building activities. They are now available to all GLOBE Partners to download. Visit the following links to download the Regional Press Kits, which are in PDF form. Please let us know if you have any difficulty downloading them and of course, your comments are welcome so that we can ensure that these documents are useful for you.

• Sub-Saharan Africa: (2.2 MB)
• Near East and North Africa: (2 MB)
• Asia and Pacific (2 MB)
• Europe and Eurasia: (2 MB)
• Latin America and Caribbean: (either English or Spanish - both 2.5 MB)
• United States: (2.65 MB)

You may already be familiar with the GLOBE Regional Brochures, which are full-color, tri-fold pamphlets that give a general overview of the GLOBE Program. The Regional Press Kits differ from the Regional Brochures in that they give more detailed information about GLOBE implementation specific to your region. Together, the Regional Brochures and the Regional Press Kits make an effective tool you can use to educate potential funders in your region on the importance and effectiveness of the GLOBE Program.

Listservs:
At the request of various Partners, the GPO has now created listservs for all countries, international regions and U.S. states. These listservs will facilitate communication among GLOBE Partners to share best practices and work toward empowering your efforts. For more information about or to add someone to the GLOBE listserv you belong to, please contact your Regional Desk Officer.

GLOBE Data Entry and Access:
Students Can Now Enter Vernier Probe Data:
It is now possible to identify and enter data collected with probes for both the water temperature and dissolved oxygen protocols. Please refer the GLOBE Teacher's Guide (Hydrology Chapter) for more information.

GLOBE Data Access:
Data for Freshwater Macroinvertebrates, which GLOBE students have been collecting since August 2003, are now accessible on the GLOBE Web site. From the GLOBE Data Access page, click the "Freshwater Macroinvertebrates" checkbox under Hydrology. Scroll down and select specific start and end dates and then click on the button labeled "Get the data Now!**".

Similarly, data reported for the water vapor, fire fuel ecology, seaweed phenology and Arctic bird migration protocols will be available from the GLOBE Data Access page in the near future.

Chief Scientist's Report (top)

Chief Scientist's Blog
GLOBE Chief Scientist, Dr. Peggy LeMone, has started a blog intended for GLOBE students. "Blog," short for "Weblog," is a frequently-updated online journal where an author posts thoughts, comments, and philosophies to share with others. This interactive blog will feature Dr. LeMone's thoughts, observations, and comments on a variety of science topics and will provide students the opportunity to share comments and discuss the topics with each other. Visit Dr. LeMone's Blog now!

CALIPSO-CloudSat Satellites Launch
GLOBE students enjoyed the opportunity to interact with scientists from the CALIPSO and CloudSat satellite missions! Read the entire announcement about the launch here.

For more information about the recent online forum, where students had the opportunity to ask questions about the missions and learn about clouds, aerosols and their possible role in predicting climate change, visit the GLOBE Web site article: Satellite Missions CALIPSO and CloudSat Partner with GLOBE: Providing an Web Forum for Students and Teachers Worldwide.

Surface Temperature Campaign
What is the temperature of the playgrounds that students play on? How does the temperature of a grassy field differ from the temperature of a parking lot? These are the questions that were addressed with the SURFACE TEMPERATURE campaign that took place from October to November, 2005. Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, Principal Investigator for the GLOBE Surface Temperature measurement, and researchers at the University of Toledo, are currently analyzing results from this field campaign, which will be published in a future GLOBE Star. Learn more about the Surface Temperature Field Campaign here.

GLOBE ONE
Automated weather station data collection for the Iowa-based GLOBE ONE Field Campaign was completed on 10 November 2005 at the end of the second growing season. While schools continue to collect data in accordance with GLOBE protocols, the main focus of the students has shifted toward individual projects; several classes and individuals are working on GLOBE ONE projects. Some samples include developing a contrail length and width protocol; use of incoming solar radiation data to determine cloud cover and type; comparing school temperatures to the airport temperatures; and comparison of surface temperatures at different schools. The results of this work were presented at the Student Research Symposium in Cedar Falls, Iowa on 10 February 2006. Dr. Peggy LeMone, Dr. Sandra Henderson, and John McLaughlin as well as several representatives from the PI teams attended the symposium.

Since it was discovered that there are timing errors in the automated weather station data, we have arranged to have a group at the Earth Observing Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research process the data to remove timing errors and flag other possible problems. These data should be available to the GLOBE community by late summer.

Education Update (top)

GLOBE at Night
The recent GLOBE at Night event was a success! Over 4500 observations of the night sky were entered into the data base. Individuals from all 50 states and 96 countries submitted observations. A full report of the GLOBE at Night event including a scientific analysis of the data will be available by the end of April. For more information, visit the GLOBE at Night Web site later this month.

Elementary GLOBE
Elementary GLOBE is an Earth System Science (ESS) unit for K-2 students that includes storybooks and learning activities. This unit addresses ESS and related topics, including clouds, seasons and soils. The science content in the books serves as a springboard to GLOBE's scientific protocols, and also provides students with a meaningful introduction to technology, a basic understanding of the methods of inquiry, and connections to math and literacy skills. We look forward to releasing Elementary GLOBE in PDF format this coming August!

GLOBE Stars (top)

Your GLOBE Star stories are so important! They provide ideas and inspiration to other schools, teachers and Partners, as well as to the GPO. Our goal is to increase the number of GLOBE Stars we publish to one Star per region per month. GLOBE recently hired a new communications specialist, Julie Gerleman, to assist us with meeting this goal. Some of you have already worked with Julie to get your Star up on the Web site. We invite you to assist Julie in highlighting all the good work you do by creating a draft article and submitting it to your Regional Desk Officer with a few photographs. Please remember that all pictures must have a completed release form in order to be posted on the GLOBE Web site. Click here to download the picture release forms.

Again, please email your article to your Regional Desk Officer. Please send hard copies of completed release forms to:

GLOBE Stars Photo Release
The GLOBE Program
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000 USA

Thank you for helping us highlight your region and provide the exposure you deserve for all the hard work you, your teachers and your students do! Below please find links to the Stars and other regional news that has been published since October, 2005.

Africa:

• Twelve Countries Participate in an International Training Workshop and Africa Regional Meeting
• Cameroon GLOBE Students Increase Environmental Awareness of Municipal Lake
• GLOBE in Cameroon Opens New Regional Conference Center for GLOBE Professional Development and Initiates National Science Teacher Association
• South African School Recognized for Environmental Initiatives
• Ten Countries Participate in GLOBE International Training Workshop/Regional Meeting
• Madagascar Project Forges New Alliances by Tackling Malaria

• The GLOBE Campaign and GLOBE Day, Maliyadewa College, Kurunegala, Sri Lanka
• GLOBE Thailand Hosts TTT Workshop

• Macedonia and Croatia Build Strong Bonds through GLOBE
• The 6th GLOBE Germany Students' Congress at the DLR School Lab in Cologne Porz

• South American Decision Makers Attend GLOBE Meeting in Lima, Peru

• Bahrain Students Walk for Environmental Awareness
• Oct 3rd 2005 Sun Eclipse Report - Saudi Arabia

• A Meeting of Minds: GLOBE Students and Scientists Share Research in Iowa
• Greg Lopatka's model of GLOBE sustainability in Illinois
• GLOBE in Alabama
• 100,000 Points of Data

• Africa: Dr. Rebecca Boger
• Asia and the Pacific: Mr. Eric Stonebraker
• Europe and Eurasia: Mr. Gary Randolph
• Near East: Dr. Rebecca Boger
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Dr. Teresa Kennedy
• Canada: Dr. Sheila Yule
• United States: Ms. Nan McClurg

Regional News (top)

In the past six months, there has been a multitude of exciting GLOBE activities in Asia and the Pacific. Pakistan is working on an exciting new training opportunity to help reinvigorate their GLOBE Program implementation; we have two new Country Coordinators to welcome; and there is much excitement and hard work surrounding the upcoming 10th Annual Conference in Phuket, Thailand from 31 July through 4 August 2006.

Happy Anniversary!
The Marshall Islands celebrate its 10-year anniversary as a GLOBE Country this year! Congratulations!

Strengthening Regional Collaboration - 2006 Annual Conference

We hope to see you at the upcoming GLOBE Annual Conference in Thailand. In conjunction with the conference, sessions will be devoted to strengthening regional collaborations. In particular, participants will be able to continue with their discussions on developing a constitution for their regional consortium.

For more information, please contact Eric Stonebraker, the Regional Desk Officer for Asia and the Pacific.

Building a GLOBE Science Community

Scientists at universities are often eager to work with GLOBE students and teachers, and this fact can be advantageous for GLOBE Partners in their quest to build their GLCs. For example, recently representatives from Walailak University, Suranaree University of Technology, Khon Kaen University, and Mahidol University participated at the Thailand TTT workshop. Many GLOBE Country Coordinators have established scientific boards to work with teachers and students and assist in training.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has affiliate institutions in Australia (Australian National University, Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, Macquarie University, and Monash University), India (National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting), Japan (Meteorological Research Institute, University of Tokyo- Center for Climate System Research), Korea (Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul National University), and the Philippines (Manila Observatory). As a means of assisting our Partners in establishing and building their GLCs, the GPO has sent letters and Regional Press Kits to these institutions in the hopes that scientists will be interested in collaborating with GLOBE schools in their countries and region. The GPO encourages the Country Coordinators in these regions to contact these institutions and begin collaboration in their regional GLC.

Welcome New Country Coordinators

Please join us in welcoming Ms. Kathryn Hicks, and Aaron Fleming, both of The Royal Society of New Zealand, as the new Country Coordinator, Assistant Country Coordinator and Country Coordinating Agency. The Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) is an independent, national academy of sciences that is joined with over sixty scientific and technological societies, and individual members. They promote a critical awareness of science and technology in schools, in industry and in society. RSNZ plans to complement their GLOBE Program activities with their National Waterways Project, a student water monitoring program. In addition, RSNZ sees natural connections between the GLOBE Program and other RSNZ administered projects such as their National Science and Technology Fair and strong connections to subject associations including the NZ Association of Science Educators, Technology Education NZ, the Board of Geography Teachers, NZ Association for Environmental Education, and others. Please feel free to contact Ms. Hicks at kathryn.hicks@rsnz.org and Mr. Fleming at aaron.fleming@rsnz.org and welcome them aboard!

With the retirement of Mr. Kalimullah Shirazi, former Pakistan GLOBE Country Coordinator, we are pleased to welcome back Mr. Mehboob Elahi, Director General of the Ministry of Environment. He served as the initial Country Coordinator and helped Pakistan join the GLOBE Program in 1997. You may contact Mr. Elahi and send your best wishes to him at dgenv@isb.comsats.net.pk. His preferred method of communication is via fax. He can be reached at: 92-51-920-8532.

Master Trainers in Asia and the Pacific: