MoEST & US Embassy Sign Agreement to Make GLOBE Program Available to Students

Today, the U.S. Embassy and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology signed an agreement to introduce the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, known as the GLOBE program, for short. This is a worldwide hands-on, science and education program that focuses on the environment, and that has been active in over a hundred and twenty countries. Sponsored by NASA and other agencies, the program allows students and teachers to collect data and perform research in collaboration with scientists. Its access to Belizean students who engage in science and technology will be made all the easier through an app which can be downloaded. Today, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Belize, Leyla Moses-Ones and Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Francis Fonseca shared the importance that students in Belize will be working with this program.

Leyla Moses-Ones

Leyla Moses-Ones, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Belize

“It is a chance for students to conduct real-world, hands-on scientific experiments using the scientific method and then feed those results into the apps program, which then goes into a global database. So, for example, other scientists are tracking activity in Belize’s mangrove but aren’t able to come here for hands-on research. This is a way for students to go out, collect that data and personally contribute to the world’s trove of information – the growing body of knowledge. NASA’s one of the agencies that is sponsoring this program through the provision of technology and some of their scientists. The Department of State is also intricately involved in this program, so it’s really an integrated effort, also education platforms to help the new custodians of knowledge for the future, bringing them into real world problem-solving.”

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education, Science, Technology

“The national curriculum framework – this program is directly aligned to that because the national curriculum framework that we launched recently identifies and prioritizes science and technology as a key component of Belize’s education curriculum. So at every level of our education system, our students are going to be exposed to science and technology. You have to start somewhere, so along with Globe, we decided that we would start at the high school level. That’s where we will start first, but hopefully – we obviously want to expand that. As we said, science and technology, we want to expose our students even at the pre-school level to basic science and technology concepts and then of course at the primary school level. So it’s something we’re starting at the high school level but of course over time we will expand to the entire educational system.”