Climate Change Research Initiative

My first experience with climate change research was when I was in elementary school. I have no idea how I learned about the greenhouse effect, but when it came time for me to do my science fair experiment, I knew I wanted to explore it.

I also don’t remember how I decided on how to do this experiment. This was FAR before the internet. My only resources were teachers, science TV shows, and the library. But my materials list included shoeboxes, cheap thermometers, waxed paper, and saran wrap. My results are lost to posterity, but I do remember being in the backyard, with the wind blowing the saran wrap off my shoebox, while I tried to read the temperature through the waxed paper, gave up and lifted it up.

In the interim between my initial research experience and the present, I went to college and grad school, became a science teacher, and became deeply invested in climate change education. This week I learned I was accepted as an associate researcher/educator within NASA’s Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) program. I’m working with an amazing mentor, Dr. Alicia Joseph, and looking at sattettle data from SMAP—a probe that can measure soil moisture. I look forward to sharing my experience and process here. It seems more important than ever that we educate our youth and the general public about the impacts of climate change and the science being done here on Earth to document the changes that will affect us all.