Projects and Programs

Principal Investigators: Lisa Gardiner
Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Department of Commerce

Short Summary: 

These educational resources were developed at the UCAR Center for Science Education as an outreach effort of Argos, a system of instruments aboard satellites used to track tagged animals around the world and help understand other aspects of our planet.

This collection of classroom activities and the Follow Me! comic book tell the stories of animals that are often hard to observe — animals that live in hard-to-reach places, travel long distances, or live underwater. Based on research projects that track animals with satellites, these activities illustrate how technology can help us learn about the natural world. 

Funders: National Science Foundation

Short Summary:

Several classroom activities in the UCAR SciEd Classroom Activities collection, originally in English, have been translated into Spanish, making them more usable to Spanish‑speaking learners and educators. By providing Spanish versions of these engaging, standards-aligned activities, UCAR SciEd broadens participation and supports bilingual instruction. The translated activities retain the interactive, hands-on components of the originals, fostering scientific literacy in K‑12 classrooms.

Principal Investigators: Becca Hatheway, Lisa Gardiner
Funder: NSF PIRE via the University of Rochester

Short Summary:

UCAR Center for Science Education worked with scientists from several U.S. universities, led by a team from the University of Rochester, to develop educational resources about the biogeochemical cycles and related processes in Central Asia and the Pacific Ocean that influence Earth system variability. To be used at public science events and in museums around the country, these materials include an interactive station-based game, a hands-on activity exploring dust and other sediments, a map-based interactive Google slide deck, datasets viewable in augmented reality using the MeteoAR app, and interpretive materials that will accompany Science On a Sphere® (SOS) visualizations of dust transport in the atmosphere. You can find all of these resources in English and in Mandarin. 

Principal Investigators: John Ristvey, Becca Hatheway, Lisa Gardiner
Funder: NASA

Short Summary:

With GLOBE Weather, middle school students explore phenomena related to weather and storms during a five-week unit to help them understand weather at local, regional, and global scales. They analyze weather data collected by schools that are a part of the GLOBE Program, and they collect their own observations of the atmosphere following GLOBE Atmosphere Protocols.

Developed to address Next Generation Science Standards, the GLOBE Weather curriculum focuses on student explorations of weather phenomena, utilizing a storyline approach within the BSCS 5E learning cycles. The curriculum focuses on analyzing and interpreting weather data and developing models to explain and document student understandings. Avenues for further explorations of weather with the GLOBE Program provide opportunities to extend learning with student research projects.

Principal Investigators: Lisa Gardiner
Funder: US Department of State via the GLOBE Implementation Office

Short Summary:

The Zika Zine is an outreach effort of the GLOBE Zika Education and Prevention Project. This informal education resource was translated into ten languages and disseminated to librarians and teachers in the GLOBE Mission Mosquito network. 

While the Zika Zine’s fictional mosquitoes can talk, they otherwise do the same sorts of things as real Aedes mosquitoes, which carry the Zika virus. Read the Zine, learn how Aedes mosquitoes live, and discover how to reduce the number of places where mosquitoes can survive. You’ll also find out how citizen scientists are helping NASA by documenting mosquito habitats with GLOBE Observer. After you’ve read the Zika Zine, download the coloring pages, How to Draw Wanda in 9 Easy Steps and Make Your Own Zika Zine Comic and create your own mosquito pictures and stories.