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4casters Global Warming Research Project was initially developed to be a way school age students could collect and follow data about temperature in relation to global warming. My idea was at first scrapped, and then re-tooled to fit into the scale of two weeks for this course.
Without actual school group participation (only one signed on), the project had to be scaled back to capture and hold the attention of busy adult participants. Instead of collecting several temperatures from the same date, at multiple points in history, we only collected two temperatures from each participant.
These two temperatures were from the same two years for most people, but the actual date varied during the two week data collecting period. So, the general idea of the project was there, but the details were blurred to keep the project viable on such a short schedule with busy participants.
Considering the short busy schedules of the researchers, we still managed to collect data from 21 different localities, including two from out of the country.
4casters Global Warming Research Project utilized three key sites for data collection, collaboration, and analysis:
Participants were asked to go to The Weather Underground and enter their zipcodes. After doing so, the researchers were to follow the page to the History and Almanac section of the page. It was here that they found their first piece of data; yesterday's temperature (high/low). After finding this information, they were to use the Detailed History and Climate link to enter yesterday's date, only with 1970 as the year. The page that they found themselves at now had the second piece of temperature data they needed (high/low). With the information in hand, they simply needed to enter it back on the Wikispace, either in the discussion section, or by adding it to the main page.
At the conclusion of the project, I placed all the data together on an excel worksheet, and made two graphs. One graph represented the High temperature data, the other contained the Low temperature data. This information was passed along to the researchers to view/analyze, they were then directed to the Survey site to synthesize what they thought about the data as well as the project itself.
I thought this project went very well. I was worried that I would only have friends as participants, but instead it allowed me to meet some new friends. Of the 21 participants, 9 of them I did not know prior to the project. Within these 9 were 2 from out of the country; Australia and England. The remaining 19 were from all across the US.
Once things started they ran pretty smoothly. I learned more about the web sites I was using and was able to modify the project during the data collection period.
Made some new contacts that should prove fruitful. I had one teacher/school group from New York state who particpated. I hope to keep them involved when I expand the program and use it within my Environmental Science class. The other contact that I hope to espand is JByers. James is one of the founding fathers of Wikispaces. I had asked for some help in trying to recruit participants. He obliged, participated himself, and commented on the creative use of the site.
In my brainstorming stage I had contacted Brewster Bartlett, aka Dr. Splatt, who heads up Project Roadkill. Although we didn't get together for this project, he expressed interest in collaborating in the future.
The foundation of a good project is already completed. Now the goal will be to expand and develop what is already there. I can learn from mistakes and continue to change the site.
Due to our time constraint and the type of participant I knew I would get, the dates used to gather data were not congruent.
Due to some inconsistencies with the Weather Underground and the record keeping from some cities (suburbs mainly), some participants could not find data from 1970.
Inital idea for data collection was flawed. I did not realize that users needed to be registered with Wikispaces to add to the Discussion section. It was overlooked because I was logged on when developing the directions, so I was able to move freely throughout the site. This was discovered and corrected, but I wonder if I lost any participants in the transfer of directions.
I had trouble displaying the graphed data on the Wikipage. I could only transfer the data itself. I am still working on this problem.
Without paying for an account, I was limited in what I could do on Survey Monkey. The site worked well for what I wanted it to do, but I could do more with it.
I really like this idea and want to expand upon it for the future. I will be using this in my environmental science course this school year. Most likley, the kids will be helping me broaden the scope of the idea.
Organization of the idea will be a big task for me. I think we need to have set dates in which particpants collect their data. This is so we are comparing the same dates for everyone. I also feel we need to have more historic dates. Instead of only looking at the present plus 1970, I think we need to add more. This will most likely increase the difficulty of finding the information, but that is a good thing.
Along with organization of the idea, there is a need for organization of the participants. I would like to have students participate over a long period of time. I would like to have each school register their information on a set schedule (ie. the first Monday of the month), for the entire year (on subsquent years also).
Like Project Roadkill and One Sky, Many Voices, I hope to add lessons and tasks related to the data being collected. These need not be directly related to global warming, but to the changing temperatures. We could follow a certain weather pattern across the US for example; starting on the west coast and continuing over time, across the midwest to the east.
Within my Data Analysis survey, I asked 5 questions about the project itself. One of the questions inquired about ways to improve upon the idea. All of these ideas will also be considered and acted on where relevant.
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