INTEGRATING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION: EXPERIENCES FROM THE GLOBE PROGRAM

A core element of a hands-on, inquiry-based educational pedagogy is for students to conduct their own research. Opportunities for research exist at number of different levels. These range from classroom work on teacher- or student-stimulated questions, through the study of issues of local to regional interest, to the generation of new knowledge by basic investigations of unanswered scientific questions. The different research modes involve different styles of interaction. Classroom research is limited to students working with their peers and their teachers. The study of broader issues may involve interaction with a wide range of professionals from scientists to legislators, while basic research requires the collaboration of students with scientist mentors to help lead the students in forwarding the frontiers of knowledge and understanding. Access to all levels of "integrating research and education", allow teachers to select the "research" level appropriate to their classroom needs.

The GLOBE Program provides opportunities to pursue the different levels of integration. Fundamental to GLOBE is the training of teachers to teach students, through scientist prepared protocols, to collect and archive basic sets of environmental data. The ability to collect high quality data empowers students to ask a wide range of research questions, and supports collaborations with scientists interested in using student generated databases for their research. The exceptionally broad spatio-temporal coverage of the data provided for by the global distribution of GLOBE schools makes for a uniquely valuable data resource.

Annual assessments of the GLOBE Program over the past 6 years suggest that the encouragement of student research using their own data has been a very effective teaching method.