Larkin Students Represent Ireland at Annual GLOBE Meeting in Detroit (6)
Larkin Community College students Karl Harmon and Pavel Trigub attended the 23rd GLOBE Annual Meeting in Detroit, Michigan 14-19 July 2019. The students carried out a project looking at Nitrogen dioxide levels in different traffic zones around the school for February 2019. The data was compared to that of 34 other schools in urban and rural settings to identify patterns or trends between the volume of traffic and levels of Nitrogen dioxide.
Weather conditions that can affect the transfer of combustion engine gases in the atmosphere also provided important information to help understand and explain the data pattern comprehensively. Daily precipitation and air temperatures were recorded and compared to national values from MET Eireann and then uploaded to the NASA GLOBE websites.
Along with students from many different countries, we took part in presentations, demonstrations and workshops. We also attended the Howell Nature Centre for 2 days where we worked in multinational teams to design, implement and later report on a environmental monitoring project. Our project focused on the relationship between acquatic flora and levels of dissolved oxygen and pH values in a freshwater environment. Our results indicated that living plant life adds dissolved oxygen but decomposing removes it, thus influencing the amount available for other aquatic organisms. pH levels showed little variation and remained in the range 6.5-7.5 providing a neutral pH environment for flora and fauna.
TEACHER
It was amazing to take part in the 23rd Annual GLOBE meeting in Detroit. I couldn't believe the brilliant news when we were awarded the national prize during the year and it has been an honour to represent Ireland. The students were top class representatives of their school and country. They have just finished their first year in secondary school and I hope they continue working on GLOBE and Green School Biodiversity. When 2019/20 academic session starts we can showcase the event in the school using the poster and photographs and hope that this encourages more students to get involved. Larkin Community College has published on social media news and links from the GLOBE. We would be delighted to work in partnership with teachers and students on a global water analysis program with an initial campaign in September 2019 comparing the rivers Detroit and Liffey, WaterDuDes.
STUDENTS
It was a honor for us to be part of this once in a life time opportunity and to not only represent Larkin Community College but the whole of Ireland at the GLOBE meeting in Detroit. We especially enjoyed our time at the Howel Nature Center where we did a whole load of activities such as night hiking, kayaking, trail walking as well as our environmental project. For the culture night we sang the Irish National anthem, shared Irish phrases and told campfire stories. We made great friends during our time in Detroit and hope that we can keep in touch with everyone. We have memories that we will never forget.
Here are some links of videos to show what the students got up to on their adventures in Detroit!
Day 1 Student Poster Presentations
Day 2: Team Building at Howell Nature Centre Day 2: Team Building at Howell Nature Centre
Day 3: Flying Kites with the AREN Project at Belle Isle
