MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The annual regional meeting of GLOBE took place in Mossel Bay this week. The Africa regional office for GLOBE is also situated in Mossel Bay.

GLOBE is an international hands-on, school and community-based science and education programme that unite students, teachers and scientists in study and research about the dynamics of the Earth's environment. Over a million GLOBE students in more than 18 000 schools, located in over 100 countries, have taken important environmental measurements. Their data is used in their own research activities, as well as by scientists around the world. More than 35 000 teachers have attended GLOBE professional development activities.

The goals of the GLOBE Programme are to:

• Improve science education;
• Increase scientific understanding of the Earth as a system; and
• Enhance the environmental awareness of individuals worldwide.

The GLOBE Programme is implemented through a worldwide network of primary and secondary schools. GLOBE students learn about their local environment by:

• Taking environmental measurements at or near their schools using GLOBE measurement protocols and appropriate, calibrated measurement equipment.
• Reporting their observations to the GLOBE database via the GLOBE website or e-mail.
• Using tools on the GLOBE website to create maps and graphs from their own data, to analyse GLOBE data sets, and to share their data with other schools around the world.
• Conducting real research in collaboration with scientists and other GLOBE students worldwide.

GLOBE is not a curriculum, but rather a resource that GLOBE teachers can adapt for use in their schools and classrooms to align with their state or country curriculum, to achieve high level learning goals.

Guided tour of caves
Because of the rather large delegation of representatives from 13 African countries, the group was allowed to go on a guided tour of the Pinnacle Point Caves. The archaeology tours will only start in June and the organisers saw this as an opportunity to market the Pinnacle Point Cave and surrounding archaeology sites to the African market.

After a very interesting and passionate lecture about the origins and history of the site by Dr Peter Nillsen, the group descended down the steep slope to visit Cave 13. It was a rather emotional moment when 17 people from all over Africa stood on the site, that is believed to be the Point of Human Origins. It is as if a full circle of life had evolved.

These delegates will take home a memory of Mossel Bay that will remain very special to them and they thanked everybody who made this tour possible.

A special thank you is also extended to Mr Fred Orban, his guide Willie and Dr Peter Nillsen, who agreed to do the tour on very short notice.

For more information on GLOBE, contact the Regional Director, Mark Brettenny, at mark@globe-africa.org, or visit www.globe-africa.org and www.globe.gov, or call +00 27 446 911 108.