Dr. Sara Benham participates in GLOBE Earth As a System: Exploring Land Cover & Climate’s Impacts Professional Learning Experience

On June 24-25, 2025, the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE) became a hub of discovery and collaboration as science curriculum leaders, curriculum writers, and teacher specialists from across Region 2 came together for an immersive professional learning experience. Guided by NIA’s STEM educators and NASA scientists, participants explored innovative ways to bring Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) protocols into their classrooms – empowering students to collect and analyze real-time environmental data, uncovering the critical connections between land cover, clouds, Earth’s energy budget, the urban heat island effect, and climate.

 

Phoebus High School science teacher and environmental science curriculum writer, Dr. Sara Benham, joined colleagues from Isle of Wight County, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Suffolk, York County, and Virginia Beach Public Schools for two days of hands-on investigations and rich, collaborative discussions.

 

This professional learning experience built on the momentum of the May 2 Taste of GLOBE and NASA eClips webinar, which introduced Region 2 science leaders to a range of GLOBE and NASA eClips investigations and resources that could be used to enrich their science curricula. Elizabeth Goodwyn, science curriculum leader, represented Hampton City Schools (HCS) during the webinar. In direct response to the needs identified during that session, NIA and NASA educators customized the June experience to ensure maximum relevance and impact.

 

Benham left the training with not only fresh insights and a wealth of classroom-ready resources, but an understanding of how HCS science teachers can use the equipment in each school’s weather instrument shelter to make cloud observations and collect air, surface, and soil temperature data. Benham shared, “The NASA GLOBE training was a great introduction for me to start using the extensive library of resources offered by GLOBE, as well as get hands-on training and an opportunity to talk with the educators who put the lesson plans together. I am eager to start incorporating these activities into the classroom and the environmental science curriculum this year.” Further, Benham and the HCS science department received $5,000 in funding from NIA—made possible by a generous grant from the Coastal Virginia STEM Hub and the Virginia General Assembly. These funds will provide materials for HCS third grade soil investigations and equipment to support energy budget and urban heat island studies in both 6th grade and high school environmental science classrooms. 

 

By embedding authentic data collection, scientific protocols, and GLOBE investigations into science teaching, this initiative empowers students to become true citizen scientists—equipped to think critically, problem-solve creatively, and engage meaningfully with the challenges of a changing planet.