Kindergarten Dubrovnik has participated for the second year in a row in the „Look Up-Cloud Hunters“ competition.

Children were presented with the GLOBE Observer app and the GLOBE Cloud Identification Chart. They were observing clouds and atmosphere conditions. Furthermore, children were taking artistic photos of interesting clouds with a mobile phone camera. Once again participating in this competition encouraged us to join the STEM Discovery Campaign 2023, this year by creating a new learning scenario on the topic of cloud identification and the most common cloud types. It included observing, using various learning materials, art activities and making posters and models.

We are looking forward to next year!

Article by Ana Pasqualicchio

Dubrovnik Kindergarten, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Read more on: https://wakelet.com/wake/oAKHDd5UpvLzLzMg9v7Re

Students from the 2nd Primary School of Nea Erythraia in Athens, Greece, took part in the "Look Up - Cloud Hunters 2023" campaign as part of the class STEM project "Do Look Up! A Journey from Earth to Space." an interdisciplinary project that aimed to inspire 11-year-old students, particularly girls, to become interested in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) by combining STEM and Space education. As a result, the "Look Up - Cloud Hunters 2023" campaign was ideal for introducing them to citizen science. assisting them in understanding the importance of clouds on both the local climate system and regional weather, inspiring them to learn more about Earth Observation Satellites, and finally demonstrating how mobile devices, particularly their sensors, can be used to conduct scientific experiments. Some activities involved the entire class during ICT and informatics sessions, while others took place in the afternoon zone with fewer students.  The pupils worked in groups, using the computer lab's mobile devices. The teacher has already used the same account to install The NASA Globe Observer Citizen Science smartphone application on multiple mobile devices. Students worked in groups under the supervision and help of their teachers. They carried out various sky observations in the schoolyard using the Clouds Protocol of the NASA Globe Observer app and attempted to complete and upload all of the observations requested by the app. They were amazed and thrilled to be a part of this citizen science program and contribute to giving scientists a more complete image of the clouds in the atmosphere by combining their ground observations with the data collected by satellites. The excitement of conducting scientific outdoor observations using mobile devices encouraged students, both boys and girls, to self-react and take the initiative to navigate through the application, understand exactly what data the application was requesting, carefully observe the sky and clouds, and finally, after several attempts and experiments, register their observations on the application.  Because the students' mobile devices lacked a magnetometer sensor, they had to rely on prior knowledge to figure out how to orient themselves to find the four cardinal points (North, South, East, and West) by using sunrise and sunset for approximate directions, in order to complete their observations. After that, observations were made using mobile devices equipped with magnetometer sensors, which helped the students understand how crucial various sensors are for carrying out particular experiments. The students were captivated by the following activity, in which they were requested to check when and which satellites will pass over the school so that they could compare their ground observations with those of the satellites from above. While the NASA satellites METEOSAT-10 and VIIRS NOAA20 were passing over their school, they went outside once more to take their ground measurements. After a few days, they received emails including both their own and the satellites' data, which caused enormous excitement. They were perplexed to see that the satellite observations were quite different from their ground observations. The teams had a lot of debate about this and were motivated to thoroughly study the application instructions again. More recordings will be made in May so that their data can be compared again with those of the satellites. Participating in this activity encouraged students, particularly girls, to study science and technology topics in a playful and innovative manner, while also providing them with the opportunity to participate in real-world research projects. This established the groundwork for additional investigation into the importance of clouds in planetary change, the value of citizen scientific programs, and the role of Earth observation satellites in monitoring Earth, and motivated them to join in future similar investigations. Finally, the students used critical thinking, computational thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills throughout the project, worked in groups, and enhanced their communication, teamwork, and interdisciplinary learning skills.

 More about the whole project "Do Look Up! A Journey from Earth to Space": https://wakelet.com/wake/UXIzE87uedL3fPWcG_UpF

Article by Lascaris Georgia 

2nd Primary School of Nea Erythraia, Athens, Greece 

This year fourth graders from primary school "Braća Seljan" Karlovac, Croatia, participated in an international competition "Look Up- Cloud Hunters 2023" for the first time. The competition was the peak of observation and learning about the clouds for almost whole schoolyear. 

First, students were learning about main types of clouds, exploring how clouds are formed and where in the sky specific type is located. After that, students were making their own cloud charts. They were put in groups of five. They were given cotton, chalk, carton and water colour tubes and amazing cloud charts were made. We put them on our classroom's wall and used them weekly to help us observing real clouds.

STEM activities are a big part of our classroom activities and scientific observation of atmoshere and clouds, as well. Although they are only ten, they understood how big their role was and they were all very motivated. In our schoolyard using the Cloud Protocol of NASA globe Observer App protocols we did various sky observations. For this competition students got detailed instructions. Observations were made using their mobile devices. Some amazing photos of clouds were made and children liked the idea of having fun and doing something so important. Children were thrilled to be involved in this competititon and they took it pretty seriously.

We are looking forward to participate in  next year's challenge so much!

Article by Vladimira Fumić

Braća Seljan Primary school , Karlovac