The National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Eco-Schools USA program and the NASA-supported Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program for student-citizen science have teamed up to increase critical student skills in environmental and earth science monitoring and measurement and action at K-12 schools.  The GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO) is hosted by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research through a cooperative agreement with NASA.

This new collaborative program will go far to incorporate environmental science education practices into schools seeking to become greener and more sustainable.  The combined reach of these programs in the U.S. exceeds 20,000 schools.

"Working with NWF’s Eco-Schools USA is an exciting new step for GLOBE," stated Tony Murphy, GIO Director.  "The two programs are highly complementary. GLOBE offers a suite of scientific protocols that students can use in their schools and local environment, while Eco-schools provides a framework for the integration of sustainability principles.  So, GLOBE provides the scientific data and basis for sustainability practices to be integrated into schools."  In 2013-2014 U.S. GLOBE students recorded nearly 80 million measurements.

Kevin Coyle, NWF Vice President of Conservation and Education stated, "NWF is excited to be working with The GLOBE Program. Together we can establish models of implementation to support the work of students and teachers across the country as they collect data, engage in citizen science and conduct   sustainability work at their schools and in their local communities."  NWF Eco Schools USA is a comprehensive school greening program aimed at helping K-12 schools to decrease the environmental footprints of their buildings and district facilities, make their school grounds greener with gardens and outdoor classrooms and integrate environmental education into the school’s overall education programming.  There are 3,150 schools enrolled in the NWF’s U.S. program and 50,000 Eco-Schools globally.

NWF and GLOBE staff are currently working together to create alignment between GLOBE's protocols and Eco-schools framework so that teachers and students can implement both programs effectively into the learning process and at the same time put sustainability principles into practice. Both groups will also collaborate on a series of webinars, e-news communications, and alignment tips and tools to assist educators with as seamless an integration as possible.

Upon successful implementation in the United States, NWF and GLOBE will work to expand their collaboration to other countries within the international GLOBE and Eco-Schools communities. GLOBE is present in over 100 nations and Eco-Schools in over 50. Combined the two organizations share 47 nations.





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Click here to learn more about The Globe Program and Eco-Schools USA
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Contact Eco-Schools USA at Eco-SchoolsUSA@NWF.org