STARgazer: September 2013

Students from North Shore Hebrew Academy High School took first place in the North American Region for their "Disappearing Pond Project". The winners were announced over the summer and Gerard Wykes, faculty advisor, noted that he was very proud of the students for all of their effort.

As per the GLOBE Project website, one of the most exciting aspects of The GLOBE Program is the ability for students to perform scientific research. The 2013 GLOBE Virtual Student Conference, took place from May 6-31, 2013 and provided a place for GLOBE students of all grade levels to showcase the research they have been performing. 58 projects from 4 countries (Argentina, Madagascar, Thailand and the United States) were submitted to the conference.

GLOBE provides students with a more integrated view of the various subjects they study and supports curricula interconnections in all areas.

Student research projects could cover topics in areas such as the atmosphere, hydrology, soil and more, and also needed to make use of GLOBE data. Projects would be judged based on the use of that data, creativity, scientific thought, thoroughness, knowledge achieved and clarity. Submissions could be in the form of a Powerpoint, video or other output method.

This accomplishment is particularly meaningful to North Shore Hebrew Academy because the investigation is so close to home. On a routine GLOBE monitoring day our Environmental Science students noticed that the shoreline of the pond, that NSHAHS was built around, had receded significantly from fall of 2011 to spring of 2012. Their alarm was communicated to the department chair who noted that the pond in fact had been receding for the past 4 years. The Pond is essentially a catch basin for large volumes of run-off with little recourse. Student investigated the impact this would have on the school and surrounding area.