April 2001 to March 2002

Scotland on-line

Thanks to a partnership with the Glasgow Science Centre, GLOBE is now active in Scotland with a growing cluster of schools in the Glasgow area. A special ‘ClydeWatch’ project has been developed, with links to the Scottish Curriculum to encourage its use in both primary and secondary schools. As GSC’s Jillian Boag said: "We find ClydeWatch is a great way for teachers and children to get involved with science and the Internet – all in their local school area. And the world-wide links of GLOBE mean we can compare our data with anywhere on the planet."

e-learning across Europe

Internationally, GLOBE-UK has developed links with GLOBE in Estonia, the Czech Republic, Holland, Norway and Poland for a new e-learning project. The six-nation partnership has successfully attracted EU funding through the Minerva strand of the Socrates programme. The project will develop e-learning materials for use in schools, based on GLOBE data but with the emphasis on learning activities. The final products will be launched at an international conference in Estonia in September 2003 with a new website and CD-Rom. The project also involves GLOBE teachers, both in helping to develop the new materials and in trialling them in the classroom. Any teacher in the UK - at primary or secondary level - who is interested in finding out more about this exciting development in e-learning should contact the GLOBE Office for further details.

Regional centres for training

During the last year GLOBE has started to develop new partnerships with regionally-based Millennium Science Centres. The aim is to provide inspirational venues for GLOBE training, and regional centres to support GLOBE schools. By the end of the year four Centres had been agreed:

We intend to work with these Centres to provide hands-on training sessions for new and existing GLOBE teachers, linked with special tours of the Centres. Over time they will become a regional focus for GLOBE schools to use for information and advice. Linking a high-tech environmental project with high-tech Millennium Centres makes an ideal match. In addition, we will still be offering GLOBE training at a local level within LEAs and schools wherever there is a demand. GLOBE training works best as an INSET day, but can be squeezed into less time if necessary. The key requirements for training are a computer suite and an outdoor area, so that we can provide a hands-on experience for all.

Congratulations!

Although there is no competition in reporting GLOBE data, it is good to be able to thank all the Schools and Education Centres for their contribution to world science over the last four years. The top five reporting schools in the UK (with the number of data collected in brackets) were:

Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary School, Ashford, Kent (2992)

Woodville C.E. Junior School, Swadlincote, Derbyshire (733)

Curry Rivel Primary School, Curry Rivel, Taunton, Somerset (563)

Northfields Upper School, Dunstable, Beds (516)

Worthern C.E Primary School, Shropshire (365)

And the top five reporting Education Centres were:

Stibbington Centre, Peterborough (4913)

Brandon Marsh Nature Centre, Coventry (848)

Gordon Brown Outdoor Centre, Hampshire (754)

Severn Trent Carsington Water, Derbyshire (406)

Stanley Head Outdoor Centre Stoke-on-Trent (372)

As a growing number of Schools and Centres across the UK collect GLOBE data, we hope to see yet more records being broken over the next year.

BT

Andy Tasker, GLOBE UK Country Co-ordinator

Suzanne Welch, GLOBE Advisory Teacher

Sarah Oakley, GLOBE Advisory Teacher (to Feb 2002)

Lisa Ambler, GLOBE Advisory Teacher (from June 2002)

Jane Adjei and Sue Pybus, GLOBE Administration