On Monday, May 12, 2025, Ms. Bowden-Gerard and her 4th grade students joined Science and Math Coordinator Sarah Farwell and took part in the U.S. GLOBE Virtual Student Research Symposium.

The virtual event, hosted by the United States GLOBE Coordination Office at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Leitzel Center, was moderated by experts from UNH, Grand Valley State University, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Xcite Learning, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and UC Berkeley.

Mast Way School students were paired with another classroom of elementary students in Ohio. Both classrooms worked on different citizen science projects and presented their findings to UNH scientist Franklin Sullivan, along with GLOBE scientists and educators from around the country.

Mast Way’s research project was related to clouds. Students enthusiastically shared which type of clouds they observed and answered questions from other students and experts in attendance.

During the symposium, Mast Way students also learned about the Ohio students’ citizen science project, which studied the impact of vegetation on surface temperature.

The data collected by students was shared with the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, a program supported by the United States GLOBE Coordination Office at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Leitzel Center.

"Our students spent time outside to see if they could observe the types of clouds they researched in class,” said Ms. Farwell. “They learned that their observations and submissions to the GLOBE database were helpful to scientists at NASA as they shared a ground-level view to sync with the satellite view collected by NASA. This gives NASA a more complete picture to work with.”

Assistant U.S. GLOBE Country Coordinator Haley Wicklein, who helped organize the activity explained, "The GLOBE Student Research Symposium is a national student conference sponsored by NASA that gives K-12 students from across the country the opportunity to share environmental research with STEM professionals and their peers. I am incredibly proud of the young scientists from Mast Way for their hard work and excellent communication of their observations."  

Students were given the opportunity to present their findings and ask questions to students in Ohio.

Ms. Farwell moderated discussions in the classroom and invited students to engage with the panel of experts.