GEORGE NEWS - The benefits of the citizen science programme offered by Globe Africa will be explained during a Globe Teachers Workshop at the Garden Route Botanical Garden (GRBG) on Saturday 28 July. It will be presented by Mark Bretteny, a representative of the Globe programme, and will centre around astronomical observations by citizens.
GRBG manager Finn Rautenbach is thrilled that the programme, which is part of an internationally recognised organisation, will be introduced in George.
"From what I understand, the projects that are most relevant to us are their current projects to activate citizen science for all, typically aimed at involving citizens of all age levels.
Their citizen science programmes are divided into a number of different groups. These include cloud mapping as ground proofing for Nasa's Cloud Sat. Their citizen science programmes are most often set out in the form of easily used Apps." To book, please contact Rautenbach on 044 874 1558 / manager@botanicalgarden.org.za.
Globe Africa is the African part of Globe International, an international science and education programme based at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (Ucar), funded by Nasa and the National Science Foundation. Globe at Night is an international scientific research programme that crowdsources measurements of light pollution in the night sky. At set periods within each year, the project asks people to count the number of stars that they can see from their location and report it to the project's website.
The coordinating researchers compile this information to produce a public, freely available map of global light pollution. By September 2011, almost 70 000 measurements had been made. The use of data collected by the public makes the programme an example of citizen science.
Globe at Night began as a Nasa educational programme in the US organised by the NOAO, and was expanded internationally during the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. It is an offshoot of the Globe Programme, which focuses on school-based science education. For more information go to www.globeatnight.org.
* Globe - Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
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