
NSF Org: |
GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | July 27, 2006 |
Latest Amendment Date: | August 4, 2010 |
Award Number: | 0627916 |
Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
Program Manager: |
Jill L. Karsten
GEO Directorate for Geosciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
Start Date: | August 1, 2006 |
End Date: | July 31, 2012 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $968,166.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,153,381.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2007 = $232,472.00 FY 2008 = $247,028.00 FY 2009 = $238,043.00 FY 2010 = $185,215.00 |
History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
51 COLLEGE RD DURHAM NH US 03824-2620 (603)862-2172 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
51 COLLEGE RD DURHAM NH US 03824-2620 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | GLOB LEARN & OBSER TO BEN ENVI |
Primary Program Source: |
app-0107 01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Exploring Ecosystems and the Atmosphere in the K-12 Classroom: A Plan to Integrate NASA Carbon Cycle Science with GLOBE
This project is a collaboration of scientists and educators from the University of New Hampshire, NASA's North American Carbon Program (NACP), and the Czech Republic with the GLOBE community. Through inquiry-based investigations of their local environment, GLOBE elementary and secondary students will learn about the global carbon cycle and its implications for climate change. The core activity of this project is an educational program that is structured like a scientific program to investigate the carbon cycle. These investigations are tiered with increasing levels of sophistication for use by students in higher grade levels. Students and teachers engage in activities that utilize ecological field measurements, a simplified ecosystem model that simulates carbon, water and nitrogen dynamics of forest ecosystems, a remote sensing toolkit and a set of exercises that use data collected by researchers. The project is using three existing GLOBE protocols (land cover, phenology, and soils) and is developing two new protocols for "Plant Biomass and Productivity" and "Leaf Traits." Several learning activities based on these protocols are being created and new data analysis tools will enable students to estimate aboveground carbon storage based on their plant biomass measurements. A simplified ecosystem model (PnET-GLOBE) that will allow students to manipulate variables sensitive to the carbon cycle is being adapted from a more sophisticated model used by the scientific community. In addition, new tools are being created to assist students in analyzing remote sensing data and carbon tower flux data. Specific activities for urban ecosystems being developed will help this project reach a more diverse audience. Through these activities, students will increase their environmental awareness and build stronger analytical and modeling skills.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The GLOBE Carbon Cycle Project: Using a systems approach to understand carbon and the Earth's climate system in K-12 classrooms
The global carbon cycle is a key regulator of the Earth's climate and is central to the normal function of ecological systems. Because rising atmospheric CO2 is the principal cause of climate change, understanding how ecosystems cycle and store carbon has become an extremely important issue. In recent years, the growing importance of the carbon cycle has brought it to the forefront of both science and environmental policy. The need for better scientific understanding has led to establishment of numerous research programs, such as the North American Carbon Program (NACP), which seeks to understand controls on carbon cycling under present and future conditions. Presently, parallel efforts are needed to integrate state-of-the-art scientific research on the carbon cycle and its importance to climate with education and outreach efforts that help prepare society to make sound decisions on energy use, carbon management and climate change adaptation. In a similar vein, both popular media as well as some educational curricula move quickly through climate topics to carbon footprint analyses without ever addressing the nature of carbon or the carbon cycle. If students do not gain a concrete understanding of carbon’s role in climate and energy they will not be able to successfully tackle global problems and develop innovative solutions in the future.
National Science Content Standards identify systems as an important unifying concept across the K-12 curriculum. While this standard exists, there is a recognized gap in the ability of students to use a systems thinking approach in their learning.
By participating in GLOBE Carbon Cycle, a joint project between NASA funded carbon cycle scientists and the international GLOBE education community, students learn to use a systems thinking approach, while at the same time, gaining a foundation in the carbon cycle, and it’s relation to climate and energy. More specifically the project was designed to help students achieve the following goals:
- Learn why carbon is an important element in ecosystems, and how it cycles through ecosystems.
- Gain skills in current carbon cycle research techniques, several of which are transferable to other ecological studies.
- Increase their critical thinking skills.
- Understand the nature of science research through active participation in the process.
In order to meet the proposed goals each activity was developed as a collaboration between carbon cycle scientists and science educators at the University of New Hampshire, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and the TEREZA Organization also in the Czech Republic. After initial development, teachers local to both institutions were trained and the activities were pilot tested by their students. Teachers and students provided extensive evaluative feedback through standard formal feedback forms as well as more informal interviews, journals, and class visits. Over the first four years of the project 60 teachers were trained and over half of them participated in at least one year of pilot testing. In addition, the Carbon Cycle project provided short-workshops at the GLOBE Annual Meeting and GLOBE Europe Annual Meeting each year to solicit informal feedback from the international community about the feasibility of implementation in their home countries.
As a result of this process the GLOBE Carbon Cycle project has a diverse set of activities geared toward upper middle and high school students with a variety of learning styles, resource availability, and local environments. Global carbon cycle introduct...
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