- “Does climate affect how a mosquito acts?”
- “If a mosquito from one zone is moved to another, will the eggs adapt?”
- “Would a mosquito from Puerto Rico last in Alaska?”
- “Why didn’t mosquitoes go extinct with the dinosaurs?”
Students from Delta Junction, Alaska, had many insightful questions to ask Dr. Russanne Low, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and science lead for GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper. The classes have been preparing for their upcoming fieldwork and research using the The GLOBE Program’s GLOBE Observer app, and this virtual “Meet the Scientist” event helped them do just that. Learn more about the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) program at https://globe.gov.
More than 50 7th grade students participated in the two virtual Meet the Scientist zoom events hosted in February by NASA Education Specialist, Bonnie Murray. These talks inspired students to think about their identities as a scientist as they listened to a NASA scientist talk informally about the joys, challenges, detours and stops on their career pathway. Dr. Low’s talk focused on her childhood desire to be a time traveler, and how she made that happen at different stages of her career by traveling back in time as an archaeologist and paleoecologist, and now, traveling forward, by contributing to science that helps us understand our future climate.
This activity was a collaboration between two NASA Science Activation projects – Arctic and Earth SIGNs and NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC), and NASA MAIANSE program: Minority University Research and Education Project for American Indian and Alaska Native Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Engagement.