4 Students Cross Globe for Project

While most kids try to get as far away from school as possible during the summer, youngsters from Rossmoor Elementary School recently spent their free time with their teacher, collecting data about the environment for an international science program.

As a reward for their hard work, the students received the chance to show off their newly honed science skills in an exhibit at the World’s Fair in Portugal.

The four students and their teacher, Kathy Burton, took part during the summer and school year in an international program called GLOBE, or Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment. Vice President Al Gore started the program in 1994, along with a group of scientists that “wanted kids to have some impact on learning about the world and their environment,” Burton said.

Students throughout the world collect data on the atmosphere and environment, including rainfall, cloud cover and temperature, and relay it to scientists. They e-mail the scientists and other students to discuss the results.

“The kids at the elementary level are learning how to use instruments correctly,” Burton said. “They’re learning how important it is to be consistent over time and over areas of the world.”

Rossmoor became a GLOBE school in 1995. During the school year, any student who was interested could take weather measurements during lunch break. Students also traveled to El Dorado Park Nature Center in Long Beach to take measurements.

Those who wanted more from the program were given the chance to fill out an application for one of four slots Rossmoor was allotted for a World’s Fair exhibit on the program.

The four students chosen--Teresa Benedetti, 10, David Romero, 9, David Lindsey, 11, and Burton’s daughter, Lian, 12--spent one day a week during the summer taking measurements of water quality and atmospheric conditions at El Dorado.

“They don’t look at it as classwork,” Burton said. “We go for a walk through the park to get to the site. They love doing this.”

The students, along with Burton and school Principal Laurel Telfer, went to Portugal in August and returned this week. There were only two other schools from the United States--one from Los Angeles and one from Puerto Rico--chosen for the trip, Burton said.

At an exhibit on the program in the U.S. Pavilion, they demonstrated for the thousands of visitors how they collected the scientific data.

But equally fun was the chance to explore Portugal.

“Oh, man, it was just an incredible thing,” Burton said. “The culture’s so different there. So there were lots of levels to experience this--just the difference in what the buildings look like, what the streets are like, how the taxi drivers zoom around.”

The group held fund-raisers to raise about half the $6,000 cost for the trip. For information about helping out, call Burton at the school, (562) 799-4520, Ext. 209.