NASA educators refine student engagement with satellite land cover data
Fourteen teachers from the NASA Science Activation Program’s GLOBE project participated in a 2025-2026 initiative led by NASA Langley Research Center to improve how students interpret and use Earth observation data.
During the 2025-2026 school year, 14 educators from the NASA Science Activation Program’s GLOBE (Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment) Mission Earth project took part in a Land Cover Community of Practice. The initiative was led by NASA Langley Research Center and aimed to refine how students interact with NASA land cover data derived from MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2 satellites.
Six of the participating educators actively collected land cover observations using the GLOBE Observer app. For these submissions, the team at NASA Langley compared the ground-based observations with satellite data from a similar time and location. Participants received satellite comparison emails containing data tables that illustrated how their GLOBE observations aligned with the corresponding satellite measurements.
Ten educators developed student research plans for the 2026-2027 school year focused on land cover data. These plans were designed to address specific scientific questions, allowing students to apply satellite data in their classroom investigations. The educators expressed strong enthusiasm for the opportunity to interact with each other and connect with NASA subject matter experts.
Participants also provided feedback on the GLOBE Nature Notes Guide, which was developed by the NASA Langley team. This guide leverages the Nature Note model created by the NASA Science Activation program’s Learning Ecosystems North East (LENE) project, led by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. The GLOBE Nature Notes are aligned with GLOBE protocols to assist educators in integrating nature notes with student observations.
Based on lessons learned from the Community of Practice, the team has gained a clearer understanding of how NASA land cover data can be incorporated into classrooms, the types of research questions educators might present to students, and the resources needed to support the implementation of these research plans. One educator is currently developing an example of a land cover GLOBE Nature Note to share with the community once completed.
GLOBE Mission Earth is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC54A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. The program enables communities to contribute meaningful environmental data to a long-term data record, with the GLOBE Observer app allowing educators and students to contribute observations of land cover and other environmental conditions.
