GLOBE is a `hands-on' Science and Education Programme that unites students, teachers and scientists from around the world to study and research about the dynamics of the Earth's Environment. Under this programme, the students from the participating schools take environmental measurements and report this data through the internet to the GLOBE data archive. This data is used by the scientists to verify the ground truth of the remote sensing data. They also create maps and graphs on the basis of this data and collaborate with scientists and students around the world. This programme, which is run by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on USA, was joined by India last year. About 10,700 schools in 97 countries participate in this programme. India has decided to conduct this programme in 100 schools during the current year. About 90 schools have already been identified for participation in this programme. Out of these, teachers from 80 schools have been trained in various GLOBE protocols for taking environmental measurements. Four workshops were organised during the month for training of teachers from about 40 schools in various GLOBE protocols.
The Country Coordinator for this programme from the Ministry, attended the Sixth Annual GLOBE Conference held in Blaine, Washington during 22-27 July 2001. This conference, which was attended by the Country Coordinators from other countries and US partners, dicussed the strategies adopted by different countries for implementation of GLOBE programme and the problems encountered by them.