OSSE held two GLOBE teacher trainings this past summer, one in Rhinelander (CESA 9) at the end of July and the other at Chiwaukee Academy, UW-Parkside, in August.  Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment,  (GLOBE) is a worldwide network of students, teachers, and scientists working together to study and understand the global environment. There are more than 16,000 GLOBE-trained teachers worldwide!  Wisconsin boasts over 100 GLOBE graduates.

For 2002 we are considering a GLOBE Workshop in Madison between January and April and hope to conduct one or two teacher trainings elsewhere around the state during the summer months. One graduate level credit is available from the UW-Madison for teachers who complete the training and implement GLOBE in their schools.  Also in 2002, OSSE plans to present an advanced protocols seminar at the Wisconsin Society of Science Teacher (WSST) conference in April.

ESCAPE is an on-line course in Earth System Science designed by Wheeling Jesuit University's & NASA's Classroom of the Future which investigates deforestation, volcanoes, hurricanes and ice shelf disintegration. GET-WISE currently features two lecture series, one in Earth System Science and another focusing on the Solar System. Lectures in Astrophysics and Astronomy will be developed in spring 2002. GETWISE lectures are sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System PK-16 Initiative.

Both ESCAPE and GETWISE are designed to address the professional development needs of science teachers in Wisconsin with the added ease of flexible schedules and lectures that can be accessed remotely without having to leave your school or home!

On Wednesday, September 12th, Margaret Mooney presented a GLOBE seminar at Milwaukee's Victory K-8 School for the Gifted and Talented.  The sixth grade class prepared for this visit by developing a list of 27 questions for Margaret to answer! This made the  presentation fly by with the answers woven into a discussion of the GLOBE program, the Earth as a System, and Severe Weather.

After the session with the students, Margaret worked one-on-one with GLOBE graduate Katherine Joys using their new GPS to acquire the latitude and longitude of their GLOBE data site. Victory is well on their way to implementing GLOBE data for scientists to use.

OSSE consultants are available for school visits to aid in GLOBE implementation, if you email us from our web page and we'll be glad to set something up.

Greetings from the top of Madison! It is a brisk fall morning up top of the Atmospheric, Oceanographic, and Space Sciences Building.  I have been on the roof of this 16 story building since before dawn preparing to perform a calibration for the GLOBE atmospheric water vapor special measurement. Since OSSE is the project leader for this new  GLOBE measurement, we are carrying out the baseline work so that your students can get involved with this crucial piece of new data that will give ground truth to what scientist see from satellite data.  Earth’s climate supports life largely because of the atmospheric greenhouse effect and the impact of the hydrological cycle.  Water vapor plays a key role in both of these, which makes learning about and observing water vapor a very important facet of the GLOBE Program.  Although there are many greenhouse gases, water vapor is the most abundant and extremely important  because it is both sensitive to, and the cause of , variations in climate. By taking water vapor measurements with a photometer,  your students will play a pioneering role in understanding the impacts of water vapor in global climate change.  Ahh, thankfully some members of our team have just come with doughnuts and coffee to keep me warm! Cheers, Eric Stonebraker   9/28/01

The Office of Space Science Education (OSSE) was established within the Space Science & Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to conduct K-12 education and public outreach. OSSE strongly emphasizes partnerships with teachers in local and regional schools to develop standards-based classroom programs.  Planetary Scientist, Dr. Sanjay Limaye is Director for the OSSE and Rosalyn Pertzborn is the Outreach Coordinator and Research Specialist. Also on staff is Margaret Mooney, Outreach Specialist and Eric Stonebraker, UW-Madison graduate student. Everyone on the OSSE team is a certified GLOBE trainer. Our web page is http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/outreach Office of Space Science Education 1225 W. Dayton Madison, Wisconsin 53706