Science is Better Together: The Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake

The 2021 GLOBE Community Trees Challenge is going on now. Visit the challenge page to learn how you can learn and contribute knowledge about trees. Plus, access some really cool resources and activities all about trees. (More details about the challenge are also at the end of this blog entry.)

NASA GO, K10 Partnership, and the Girl Scouts:

In the fall of 2020, the K10 partnership (detailed in our last blog) partnered with Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania and Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake to offer a “fun patch.” A fun patch can be earned by the Girl Scouts by expressing their interest or sharing an activity that they participated in with their troop or on their own.

Through K10, Girl Scouts can earn a “Clean Water Grows on Trees” fun patch by learning about the importance of trees and their impact on clean water. In addition, troops and scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania and Chesapeake chapters can now complete the fun patch requirements by taking part in the 2021 Community Trees Challenge (now through May 15, 2021) or after the Challenge concludes, by using the Trees Family Guide and completing the Trees Journey.

If you are a Girl Scout, or a citizen scientist looking to take tree height observations using the NASA GLOBE Observer app, here is an important tip:

For trees planted in public parks, anyone can use the NASA GO Trees tool to observe them. However, please do not use the NASA GLOBE Observer Trees tool on any private property without the landowner’s permission.

The tree data and photos you take as part of your NASA GO trees observations are important. Tree height is the most widely used indicator of an ecosystem’s ability to grow trees and tracking how trees are changing over time can help us estimate the number of trees that make up an area. Tree height observations also allow NASA scientists to understand the gain or loss of biomass which can inform calculations of the carbon that trees and forests either take in from or release into the atmosphere.

If you are participating with K10, you can use NASA GLOBE Observer to see how the trees planted by the K10 program are progressing. This feedback can be helpful to our project partners and the partnership. If you would like to see the full list of tree planting sites that have been planted by K10, view the progress map. And remember to be respectful of private property and any local laws and regulations.

 

The 2021 Trees Community Challenge: Science is Better Together:

Now that you see how NASA GLOBE Observer can be incorporated into programs like the Girl Scouts, how about joining in and celebrating the science and fun with the 2021 Trees Community Challenge: Science is Better Together?

Check out all the resources available for the 2021 Trees Community Challenge: Science is Better Together by visiting the challenge page: https://observer.globe.gov/trees-2021

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Brian Campbell (NASA Wallops/GST) is a NASA Senior Earth Science Outreach Specialist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia USA. Brian is also the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Lead and the Trees Science Lead for the NASA GLOBE Observer citizen science program. Brian works with local to international students in over fifty countries.

Brenda Sieglitz is the Senior Manager of the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She leads the collaborative effort, coordinated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, of over 175 national, regional, state and local agencies, as well as conservation organizations, watershed groups, conservancies, outdoors enthusiasts, businesses and individuals willing to plant trees.

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