Title / Titre :
GLOBE: An Ideal Platform for Science Education and Global Climate Change Research (GCCR)

Author(s) / Auteur(s) :
Robert L. Ford(*), Ph.D and Diola Bagayoko(**), Ph.D

Address / Adresse :
(*)Professor of Chemistry
(**)Distinguished Professor of Physics (Bagayoko@aol.com)
Southern University System
P. O. Box 11776
Southern University and A&M College
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70813. USA

Key words / Mots clés :
GLOBE, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Mathematics Education, Global Climate Change Research, Modeling. (Please see above for contact information

Abstract / Résumé : For the last decade ending in 2000, most African countries appeared to be absent on the scene of global climate change research. This situation belies the utter importance of climate changes for most of these countries, with emphasis on the ones on the coast or in Sahelian regions. While the $200,000 to $500,000 cost of a typical GCCR center may prohibit the participation of many of these countries, existing and emerging technologies offer inexpensive alternatives. In particular, geographic information systems (GIS), available satellite images, and telecommunication technologies (i.e., the Internet) offer a robust avenue for participation in GCCR. Further, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program represents a unique mechanism for these countries to make contributions that cannot be duplicated by others. The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of GLOBE (http://www.globe.gov) and to describe some ways in which the implementation of GLOBE in primary and secondary schools, as successfully done by Benin, can lend itself to reformed science and mathematics education while providing scientific data germane to climate change research. In particular, ground data scientifically collected across a country are irreplaceable for the local and regional validation of satellite data. In light of the non-linear nature of the basic equations governing global circulation and climate processes, such ground data prove to be indispensable for a reliable testing of global climate change models. GLOBE is an international program for Earth science, environmental, and general science education and research (). It currently involves over 95 countries and 10,000 primary and secondary (K-12) schools. Students at GLOBE schools collect atmospheric, hydrology, soil, and land cover (biology) data following scientifically designed and tested protocols. We close this presentation with discussions of an excellent, four-parameter fit of GLOBE temperature data to sine curves of the form T = ASin(wt+f)+B where, A, w, f, and B are constants. We discuss the variations of these parameters with the type of temperature data (atmosphere, water, or soil temperatures), latitude, elevation (altitude), and the local, dynamic Earth subsystems that prevail at the school sites. These fits permit easy comparisons of temperatures at various sites around the globe. By replacing hundreds of data points, in a given year, with just four (4) parameters, the fits enable a meticulous comparison of temperatures from one year to another and over tens of years! This work was funded in part by NASA (Cooperative Agreement No. NCC13-00010), the National Science Foundation and the Louisiana Board of Regents (Award No. HRD 000272), and the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR, Grant No. N00014-98-1-0748). The ONR funding is through the Timbuktu Academy.