Hello Girl scouts and troop leaders! We at GLOBE are very excited that you have chosen to use the
GLOBE Observer app to work on your Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey. This video can be used
as a plug-and-play with pauses for activities, so pay attention and pause the video while you work.
Alternatively, troop leaders, service unit, or council volunteers can use this video
as an example of how you might run your own program. However you choose to use this video,
enjoy your journey as you learn to think like a citizen scientist.
Welcome to the first step in being a critical part of a growing citizen science project.
Today you will learn about what it means to think like a citizen scientist, learn about
the Trees tool on the GLOBE Observer app, and make your own paper clinometer. But first let me tell
you about GLOBE and GLOBE Observer. GLOBE is an international science and education program that
provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to participate in data collection
and the scientific process and contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the Earth
system and global environment. GLOBE Observer is an app that is a data entry tool that allows
citizen scientists to enter their data and share observations. GLOBE Observer is part of GLOBE.
OK, speaking of the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey, learning about what it
means to observe is the first step in thinking like a citizen scientist. Let's get started by
practicing our observation skills. When we observe we use our senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing,
and sight. Since we can't really taste, smell, hear, or touch these pictures, we are going to
use our sense of sight. Here are pictures of a tree to observe from a distance and then
up close. Here are some possible questions that you could use to help with your observations.
Do trees have needles or leaves? When do you think this image was taken? How tall do you think that
tree is? What did you notice about your tree? Was there anything different about looking at
your tree from a distance or then zoomed in? Did you see any colors or patterns, or any insects,
plants, animals, lichen, or fungi on your tree? What do you think makes this tree special?
You can write down any observations you made in the chat, your science journal,
or on a piece of paper. If you can, you can do the same activity with any tree, not just with
the photographs. This could be a great activity for a nature walk, hike, playground meeting or
even something to do in your own yard, so don't feel limited to just take these pictures. Leaders,
once your Girl Scouts have finished noting their observations, ask them to share. I'm going to
ask your leaders to pause the video so you have time to finish your observations and discuss.
Welcome back! I bet you made some really great observations. Some things I noted about this
tree is that the photo was taken when the leaves had fallen from the tree, either fall,
spring or winter. The tree is deciduous and not an evergreen because it lost all its leaves. The tree
provides habitat for lichen and moss. The tree's in a park near a playground and soccer field,
and the tree is moderately tall, but not as tall as some of the evergreens in the background.
Observations can tell us a lot about something, and scientists use observations in their work.
What do scientists do?
Pause the video and discuss with your troop what a scientist does .
I bet you had a great discussion on what it means to be a scientist.
There are lots of different types of scientists out there, but one thing they all have in common
in their research is that scientists rely on the scientific method to learn new things. You
are going to be citizen scientists, where you use the scientific method to help gather data
for NASA scientists and other researchers including students or scouts just like you.
The first part of the scientific method is to observe. You all did a great job of observing the
tree pictures. You can do that with any tree and if you do it in person, you can touch and smell
the tree as long as it's safe to do so. Just be aware of poison oak or poison ivy. The next part
of the scientific method is to create a question and make a hypothesis. A hypothesis is just a
fancy word for your best guess at the answer to your question based on your observations.
Let's make some observations about these two trees
and then form a question based on those observations.
So let's make some observations. What differences do you notice between these trees?
Any similarities? What do you want to know?
What is your question that you're going to try and answer?
Pause the video and discuss. You can come up with your
own questions or you can use the one that I'll provide next.
Our question could be, "can tree height tell you which tree is older?"
The hypothesis is your answer to that question. So let's make a hypothesis. We have a few options,
yes or no. What do you think?
Leaders, please pause the video while you discuss this with your group.
I chose the hypothesis of, "no tree height can't tell me which tree is older."
I need more information. For example, I would want to know
when these trees were planted, which tree is older.
How tall are they? Are there other trees that are short and old and some that are tall and young?
One thing I do know is that tree age can be determined by the number of tree rings.
For each year of growth cycle, a tree gets a ring. So without cutting down these trees,
I may not be able to get a precise age. Also, as you can see by these photos, the width of
the rings can vary depending on the type of tree and the conditions in which it is growing.
But how could I collect data to answer my hypothesis? I would have to measure a lot
of tree heights of known ages and then look at all that data and look for patterns or trends .
So how do scientists know if their hypothesis is correct?
They have to collect and analyze data. The more data they have,
the better the results will be because it helps filter out some of the outliers,
the mistakes,
errors, or oddball data. Kind of like if I was measuring favorite Girl Scout cookies. The
more people I sell cookies, to the better my data will be. For example, here is a pie chart showing
real data for my troop sales. This Girl Scout made a single sale to one family who loves samoas and
doesn't like thin mints. But are samoas the most popular cookie sold by Girl Scouts nationwide?
With this data, my hypothesis should be yes. But is it? How could I get a better data set?
I could collect more data. The pie chart on the right is the data for my entire troop's sales.
This is a much better data set because it has 1559 packages of cookies sold. That's 1554 more boxes
than my single sale. With this much data I could look at which ones I sold the most of and be able
to make a better conclusion to my hypothesis than if I'd only sold one or two boxes. The
more data that is collected, the better. So, are samoas the most popular according to this data?
No, thin mints definitely are. Your troop can do the same exercise with your troop sales.
If you added your data to this data we'd have an even better data set. In the pictures of the two
trees we only have these two data points, so we can't make a conclusion about all trees. We
can only make a conclusion about the two trees and we'd need a method to see how old those trees are.
So to make the hypothesis of tall trees are older than short trees,
which may not be true, I'd have to measure a lot of tree heights and be able to count their rings
or at least measure their circumference. That's the length around the tree,
like your arms hugging a tree. For NASA scientists we rely on a lot of data and
that is where you can come in. You can be citizen scientists, measuring both tree height
and trunk circumference. All these pictures on this map are data points where citizen scientists
have taken observations of tree heights around the world. You can also take observations and add
to this robust data set. So let me introduce you to the GLOBE Observer tree height tool.
Trees. Diverse, they can be towering giants or petite saplings. Some
live for thousands of years, recording their age in rings.
They provide food, shade, shelter, and more for wildlife, and for us. Some tell us when the
seasons change through their leaves, while others continue to stand steadfast throughout the year.
But no matter their differences, their height can reveal information about their ecosystems.
By using satellites and ground-based measurements scientists can track tree growth and monitor how
well an ecosystem supports trees. Tree height is also used to measure the biomass of a forest,
allowing scientists to calculate how much carbon is stored by trees.
These are all important factors in conservation, resource management, and monitoring the climate.
By using only a smartphone and the GLOBE Observer app, citizen scientists and students
are helping create a global inventory of tree height available for everyone to use.
You can collect your own tree height data by downloading and using the GLOBE Observer app.
This next video will show you how the tree height tool works,
and what satellite data your measurements are compared to.
Now, I know i just showed you how to use the app but scientists also use another
method to measure tree height, and we are going to make our own measuring device:
a clinometer. Here is a list of the materials you'll need if you have them now you can build
it with us. If not you can easily make your own later. Pause the video if you need to collect
the materials and want to build along with us. Brian Campbell from NASA GLOBE Observer and
his son will walk you through how to build the clinometer and use it to measure tree heights.
This is one method of measuring trees. A clinometer measures angles that can be used to
calculate tree height. The GLOBE Observer app uses your phone like a clinometer, using the internal
algorithm in the app to calculate the height. No math required. Hi, my name is Brian Campbell
and I'm coming to you from Maryland in the United States and this is my son, Andy.
Andy: Hello
and he's going to be helping us out today and what we're going
to do is we're going to show you how to build a
homemade paper clinometer. So it looks like this okay this is the sheet that you can find on the
NASA GLOBE Observer website at observer.globe.gov. What we're going
to do is we're just going to simply build it. Snd here are all the materials that you need.
l should mention that a clinometer is something that helps you measure angles so what we're
talking about here is we're going to be measuring, using this later on to measure the angle
to the top of a tree, to the base of tree to the top of the tree, to get the height
of a tree okay just using this simple tool and a couple things you can find around your house.
So here's what we're going to need to be able to build this clinometer and Andy will show you
what you need. We need a straw like a drinking straw. This is a paper drinking straw, okay,
biodegradable. We have string, okay, green string. Trees are green, I thought that'd be great. Tape.
All right, and we have scissors. Be careful with these, they're sharp. Okay, a pen or pencil,
and a clipboard, so you can put your clinometer on it, because if you're using a clinometer when
it's windy and you're just using paper, you can see you get a lot of movement. So when you have
a hard surface like that it's easier to use, okay. We'll show that a little bit later on.
And finally a weight that you're going to tie to the end of the string like a washer
or a nut or it could be a paper clip, okay. This just happens to be just a little metal ring, okay,
kind of like a washer, a little metal ring. So that's all we need in order to build this. So
let's get started. First off what we're going to do is, I'm just going to take this pen, okay,
and the first thing I'm going to do is, there's a little hole here, sorry, a little circle here
that says "attach string here," a knotted string so I'm going to just poke a hole with the pen,
okay, just in here, I'm going to poke a little hole in there,
just so we can get this string. All right,
cool. So let's just take a length of string out. And what you want to do is just kind of measure,
you know, so it hangs down just above the bottom of the paper. About like that. And you're going
to take the piece of string and just cut it. All right so all right. You want to hold that
while I tie this. So I'm going to tie the washer, this metal ring, to the bottom of the string.
All right, that should be good. I just put two knots in there.
So then we're going to take the other end and just,
you know, make a couple knots together so it makes a larger knot,
and then I'm going to slip it through that hole, okay, in the paper just so
it won't slide through, okay. I have pretty thick fingers so, you know, you might want
to have someone do this, you know, who can do it quickly with, you know, thinner fingers.
All right, so there I created a little knot, so I'm going to take this knot I'm just going to
feed it through this hole in the clinometer, all right, So we're going to pull it through.
All right, so it's through, now it hangs. That's a little lower than the paper but
that's okay. If you need to what you can do is, you can just take it and pull this out like this,
okay, you can pull it up and then you can just tape it to the back.
Okay, just tape it to the back,
so then you'll have one it's like this. So now you have the first part of this,
all right, now what you need to do you have to use a straw, and I'll let Andy do this,
this straw just needs to be taped to the top of the clinometer because this straw
will be your line of sight. You're going to be looking through the straw at the top
of the tree in order to take the tree height measurement. So I'll line it up and let Andy
tape it, to just put a piece of tape here, and then piece piece of tape there.
All right good, there's one and then you want to
align it to this line that's on the top of the clinometer page.
All right, just right in there.
Perfect. All right, so now, okay, now we have essentially a working clinometer, all right so
please stay tuned because we are going to walk into the yard and take the tree height of a tree
in our location using this handheld clinometer. Stay tuned.
All right, so we're outside and we're going to be measuring the height of a tree, this tree right
here, it's a crepe myrtle, in Maryland. And Andy is going to use a clinometer,
and what's cool about these clinometers is, these are fun because these can be done with two people.
Basically it should be done with at least two people,
because one person has to use the clinometer and look through the straw, the line of sight,
and then the other person has to read the angle.
So what we're going to do is, since we're on a flat surface, we want a flat surface,
so we're going to figure out the height of the tree based on a 45 degree angle. So we're going
to use some little geometry, trigonometry, and some good math involved here. All right,
and what I want to show you here on the other side of the clinometer that you can also print out,
on here we have a little data sheet, where in order to figure out the
height we have to figure out some other observations, other measurements, okay,
those angles. So we're basically starting off with the height of the observer, which is Andy,
and we're going to use inches. He is about 61 inches tall, and then we're going to figure out
what the eye height is which is pretty easy because you take the height of the observer,
Andy, and subtract about four inches, okay, that's about the distance from the top of
his head to his eye level. It's an estimate, you can do it exactly with a tape measure.
But then we get that number, and then we're going to measure at one point the distance to the tree,
and if we wouldn't be on a flat surface we'd be measuring the angle of, basically the slope
of the ground, and we'd be having to figure out the tangent of that clinometer angle. But
because we're on a flat surface, the tangent of 45 degrees is one so, we're just going to use one.
We're on a really flat surface here, okay, and then
we get the distance from the tree, which we're going to figure out with the tape measure,
and then we get the clinometer angle, okay, and then that gives us what's
called the vertical leg. So that's the, you know, the distance from the tree
times one, that clinometer angle gives us that vertical leg and then we add that vertical leg to
the eye height gives us the tree height, okay. And if you are in inches we then can divide that by 12
to get the tree height in feet, so pretty simple. So first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to put
in what his height is. I recommend also if you print this out have it laminated or something
like that, so you use a dry erase marker and you can write the information in there and then you
can erase it off when you want to do it again. So we have your height, his height is
61 inches, okay. His eye height is 61 minus four. So what is 61 minus four, quickly?
Andy: Um, 58, 59, no seven.
There you go, 57.
Hey, it's almost summer. 57 inches, all right, I put them on the spot there so. Hey
that's what dads do. Okay, now what we're gonna do is, the clinometer angle is gonna be 45 degrees,
it's gonna be one. I'm gonna put a one here, but we first have to
find out how far we are away from the tree all right. So put my pen back in
my pocket. I'm going to flip this over, and then Andy is going to use the clinometer,
all right, so he's going to hold this up and he's going to look through the straw
and find the tallest part of this tree and put it through the straw here. Down there, all right.
All right, let me move your hand here, so what the first the other person is going to do is they're
going to here, put it down a little bit further, yeah like that, and you're going to, what you're
going to do is you're going to walk this way a little bit but keep your eye level okay so
you see the angle is changing, all right, so keep walking towards the tree, all right keep walking.
Keep walking towards the tree,
this way. A little hard to do so you might have to guide the person .
All right, all right, a little more. A little more. A little more.
All right, let me see. Let me see, let's straighten it out. A little more.
All right, so still there, you still looking through this. This is a little learning
experience. This is hard to do at first, so you'll get used to it after a while.
Okay so we're at about, about 45 degrees right now. Okay that's where you want to stop.
Okay, so then I could take the clinometer and you have to stay there,
so just hold that, so now what I'm going to do, I'm going to take the tape measure and I'm
going to measure the distance from his front of his foot, lift your toe up a little bit,
and put it down there, all right, to the base of a tree. So in inches that is 106 inches.
So what we do here is, in order to figure out the height of the tree,
the height of the tree is going to be the distance from
the front of his feet to the base of the tree, which was 106 inches, plus the height from the
ground to his eye level. That was 57. So 106 plus 57 is ... Can you figure that out? 106 plus 57?
160...
Andy: Three?
163. All right so 163 so.
Distance was one six yep, clinometer angle, vertical leg times that, that's 106. Okay
that's 106 plus his eye height, which was 57, all right, so that was 163 inches.
163 inches, oh 163 divided by 12?
A little over 13 feet.
A little over 13 feet. That's my wife, she's a mathematician, she is the camera person.
So, a little over 13 feet, okay,
So 13, about 13 feet that's pretty good because a standard basketball hoop
is 10 feet, that's just above that about three feet. So that's how easy it is to use a
hand-built paper clinometer, all right, handheld paper clinometer, just using a straw, string,
tape, washer, okay, a piece of paper, and a clipboard and a tape measure, all right,
a tape measure to get the height of a tree. So I hope you enjoyed it. This is Brian Campbell
and I'm out of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, currently standing here in Maryland
and my son Andy, and thank you to my wife Jen who is the camera person. Thank you.
A clinometer is helpful for measuring trees, but the GLOBE Observer Trees tool has the
clinometer built in. You can use your paper clinometer to compare your results from the app.
This helps make your data even stronger, since you are validating that your instruments are
working. That is, if they get the same result. Now that you have a paper clinometer, let's
learn how to use the app so you can compare your results from your tree height measurements. This
video will show you how to take an observation with GLOBE Observer when you download the app.
Hi, this is Brian Campbell
of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility.
I'm the Trees science lead
for the NASA GLOBE Observer.
Today I'm going to talk to you [about]
how to take an actual observation using the
NASA GLOBE Observer Trees tool.
In order to get started
you first have to go through the introduction.
In the introduction
it will ask you for some very vital information.
You have to input your height
and if you input your height
what the app will do is
it will then estimate
the eye level of your phone's camera
from above the ground
and also it'll estimate your stride
based on that height.
You also have to
determine if you're going to use
the metric system or the English system
in your observations for the units
for your tree height measurements.
So what we're going to do is we're going to
get started taking this observation.
Before we do any of this,
want to make sure that you're aware that
in order to do this
the way you should be doing it
you want to be able to do this
safely and legally wherever you are.
If you happen to be on private property
where there's a tree
make sure you get the permission.
But you want to make sure
that you do this safely and legally
and follow all local jurisdictions and
laws in your area.
So let's get started.
So we're going to go into the Trees tool
and we're going to just go click trees,
new tree observation.
and what you get
you'll get the time
you'll get a date stamp.
Time and date.
Make sure that's right and then what
it's going to do it's going to ask for
surface conditions.
We want to know what's happening
around your local environment
when you're taking the tree observation.
Meaning,
is there snow or ice on the ground? No.
Standing water? No.
Is it muddy? No. No dry ground.
There are leaves on the trees,
and it's not raining or snowing.
So then once you do that
you're going to take the
measure the base of the tree.
So this is really cool because
you click next, measure base
and your camera will open up
and you're going to make sure
that your phone's camera
is always at your eye level.
So, keeping it at eye level
I'm going to go to the base of the tree
and I'm going to align this line
this white dotted line to it.
There we go, it's at the base of the tree.
I like that, I'm going to continue
to measure the tree top
Keeping it eye level, you're just going to angle
the phone up to the top of the tree
and there we go we're at the top of the tree.
We got the top of the tree.
So what we're doing is we're measuring
the angle from your eye level
to the base of the tree
to top of the tree and the phone
has been put
your phone uses the
internal magnetometer
and the app uses that information to
calculate these angles
in order to get you to the to measure
the the actual height of the tree.
So we have the base and we have the top,
now we want to take a picture of the tree.
This happens to be a
really pretty Bradford pear tree.
So we're going to click on
that and it takes a picture of the tree.
Now, since I'm on a flat surface what I'm
going to do is I'm going to walk
normally to the tree, okay.
You should ultimately be about
25 to 75 feet away from the tree.
I'm about at, you know, 25 to 27 feet away
from the tree.
A I walk towards a tree,
I'm gonna walk normally.
That's super important
to walk normally to the base of the tree,
normal steps, because that's what
the app based your stride on
with your height that you input into the
introduction section.
I should also mention that there is a
tutorial section in the app
that you need to do before you start so
you can learn exactly how to do the tree
height observation
Now I'm going to walk to the tree
and I'm going to walk
normally to the tree, normal steps
counting my numbers out loud.
So here we go.
One,
two,
three,
four,
five,
six,
seven,
eight,
nine,
ten,
eleven,
twelve,
thirteen,
fourteen,
fifteen,
sixteen,
seventeen,
eighteen.
Eighteen steps.
So you input that into the box, 18 steps.
Now what it's going to do is
it's going to go to the location.
It'll give you the latitude, estimate the
latitude and longitude of the tree, okay.
It'll tell you what you think the
what the app thinks your estimated accuracy is.
And if you like it you can hit set position,
but if you don't what you can do here
you can go to a map, and this map
you can move
with two fingers and say exactly where
that tree is, okay.
So I think it's right about here, okay.
So once I set it,
I hit set position.
Then you're going to come to a screen
that says circumference.
If you have a tape measure available
you can then take the circumference.
of the tree at breast height about four,
four and a half feet above the ground surface.
All right.
Now I should also mention that
since we did it this way we're on a flat surface.
If you happen to be on an area that's
very sloped, like you're walking
uphill to the base of the tree or you're
walking downhill to the base of the tree
what you can do is
you can pull out that tape measure
and from where you took the observation
from originally
you can measure the exact distance from the
location of where you were standing to
the base of the tree.
Then you can put that information
excuse me
in this section.
This section here is the review section.
It gives a camera height, the stride length,
the number of steps you put
distance to the tree
and then in the yellow section
the calculated tree height and
If you don't like something in here or
you took the actual measurement from the
base of the tree
from the location where you're
standing to the base of the tree,
you can hit the edit button
and you can put that distance to tree
right in here.
Once you do you just hit finish, okay.
So then all that information then
will be sent to the GLOBE database
where researchers
student researchers
professional researchers and citizen scientists
can access that information.
So I'm going to send my trees data now.
It's being sent to GLOBE.
And then there are places on the app
that you can go look to see where you
actually took your tree height observations.
Before we finish, okay, that's the
actual tree height observation, okay,
but before we finish this little clip here
a couple things I want to focus on to
make sure that you remember is that
you always want to keep
the phone at eye level
when you're taking the measurements, okay.
So always at eye level, that's the most
important part, because if you
if you look at the base of the tree and
you go like this or you go to the top of
the tree like this,
you're changing the angle at which you're
viewing the base and the top of the tree.
An important thing to remember
is that if you have multiple people
taking observations using the same device,
what you need to do is you need to
change the height
of the observer each time.
Because we're assuming that they're going to
be at different heights so
if they're of different heights but
using the incorrect height,
the tree height observation will be incorrect.
It'll be an erroneous tree height observation.
How you can remedy that,
when you go into the Trees tool,
there's a little question mark
that's the help section.
You click on help, and it says
change current user height settings.
When you can do that you can go right
in and change the height of the observer
about to take the observation.
So hopefully all this helped you in
understanding how easy it is
to take a tree height observation
using the NASA GLOBE Observer Trees tool.
Have fun
using the NASA GLOBE Observer Trees tool
and thank you for all your vital
tree height observations.
If you want to get started as a GLOBE observer, ask your troop leader to register your troop
through SciStarter, then send you the link to set up your account. Once you have a troop
SciStarter account, you will choose which citizen science opportunity interests you.
If you want to use the GLOBE Observer app to measure trees, choose GLOBE Observer
Trees. There are a lot of different citizen science projects including others with NASA
and others with GLOBE Observer. We have Land Cover, Clouds, Mosquito Habitat Mapper, as well as Trees,
and you may be interested in contributing data to these projects as well.
Once you've chosen your project, then you need to download the app. It's available on Google Play or
at the App Store. Register as a GLOBE observer, then start collecting your data. So now you've learned
to think like a citizen scientist by observing, collecting, and analyzing data. The next step is
to collect and analyze your own data by using the app. Then, as you work toward completing your Think
Like a Citizen Scientist Journey, consider how you might use your data to take action.
What kind of take action project could you think of doing? You could plant a tree and
track its growth, create a program to teach other Girl Scouts about a tree or tree species that's
important to you, start a hiking group and take tree height observations as part of your walk.
If you know of a place that is undergoing changes, like a new building being built or a development,
or a place where regrowth is happening like after a landslide or a forest fire, but of course
only if it's safe to do so, monitor that change with scheduled observations. On a road trip you
could take tree height observations of trees at your stops along the way. You can even
use this information to make observations about tree heights in different locations.
You can take tree heights and land cover observations from the same place at different
seasons, and then compare the changes to the tree height from year to year and look for differences
between the images to learn more about seasonal effects on the land. And another idea is that
you could create a team with your troop, council, or service unit, and then go out and take observations
as part of that citizen science team. We would also love for you to share your take action projects
inspired by GLOBE Observer. Please share on social media or email us at GLOBE Observer.
What I love about Girl Scouts is that you all leave the world a better place. I for one am
really excited that you are leading the future for us. Thanks for joining the NASA GLOBE Observer and
Girl Scouts Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey and enjoy the path along the way.