Problem overview:
Awareness and visions: The purpose of the Schools of the Pacific Rainfall Climate Experiment (SPaRCE) programme is to increase awareness of the younger generations on global environmental issues, such as climate change, with hope that these younger generations will become adults who care and will work collectively to protect the environment in future.
Training and educational initiatives: Under SPaRCE programme, students in the Pacific islands our being educated with hands-on experience on an important environmental subject, climate change, by involving them in the data collection of rainfall.
Meeting information requirements: Data on rainfall that have been collected by students will be sent to the Comprehensive Pacific Rainfall Database, one of the major databases in the Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC) within the College of Geosciences in Oklahoma, USA.
Background in summary:
The Schools of the Pacific Rainfall Climate Experiment (SPaRCE): is a programme of scientific investigations on climate change run by the University of Oklahoma. The co-operative field project involves elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and trade school students and teachers from various Pacific island and atoll nations.
Educating the students on the science of meteorology: Students have the opportunity to "enhance their education by involvement in a hands-on, scientifically valid research program, in which the science of meteorology is presented in connection with its applications to technology, and the implications of climate change brought about by human activities is discussed as it applies to individuals and to society as a whole." (Postawko 1997).
Involving the students in data collection of rainfall: Students make daily readings of rainfall, log their readings on the data sheet provided, and send their data back to the SPaRCE office at the University of Oklahoma on a monthly basis. Data received in Oklahoma are incorporated into the Comprehensive Pacific Rainfall Database, one of the major databases in the Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC) within the College of Geosciences.
Communication and transfer of information - a key success of the programme: A key to the success of the SPaRCE program has been monthly question/answer sessions between the Oklahoma investigators and the Pacific participants through the PEACESAT (Pan-Pacific Communications and Education by Satellite) telecommunications facility. These radio sessions provide an exciting avenue for teachers and students to exchange information not only on how the program is being used in their classrooms, but equally important, to exchange information about their cultures and lifestyles.
Philosophy of the programme-create awareness and collective consensus: "The SPaRCE program involves students in a technological program which teaches the scientific method, increases their awareness of their environment, and illustrates the need for a worldwide collective consensus to protect future life on Earth. "
See document in full
Good practice rating:
(1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score) |
|
Sustainability
|
Efficiency
|
| 3 |
 Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other. |
2 |
Cost efficient. |
| 2 |
Sustainable over time (not one-off) |
Process |
| Adaptability |
2 |
Participation of the community |
| 2 |
Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?) |
2 |
Participation of resource owners/users |
| 2 |
Socio-cultural adaptability. |
1 |
Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private) |
| 2 |
Level of development adaptability. |
- |
Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments. |
| 2 |
Style of government adaptability. |
2 |
Ability to attract political interest/support |
| 2 |
Degree of decentralization adaptability. |
1 |
Procedures for feedback and review. |
Comments on this example:
Any non-income-generating program requires financial support from external bodies. This example about the SPaRCE program did not mention about the source of funding, but surely, a hefty sum of money is required to keep this program running. Because, although the people involved are working voluntarily, there are expenses being incurred from communication, data gathering, information transfers, equipment shipment and so on. Therefore, without sufficient funding, the program could come to a pause.
|
Sustainability of the project:
|
Awareness and visions: There is no better way for raising awareness than to make the public, or in this case, the students, feel involved with the issue. If the students continuously monitor rainfall, after some time, they will soon realize the changes in the rainfall pattern. The changes could be due to many reasons, and could be due to environmental problems such as climate change. It is the duty of teachers to come in and explain how these problems occur and how they can be reversed.
|
Adaptability of the project to other situations:
|
Involving school children in monitoring works and has been adapted to many different countries and subjects. The GLOBE programme (http://www.globe.gov) links scientists with educational programmes on a global basis.
| Process of decision making and implementation: |
Training and educational initiatives: The SPaRCE programme not only trains school children on how to collect rainfall samples, but also trains teachers on how to run the programme . These teachers would have to know how to collect rainfall samples with correct scientific methods and tools. They would have to acquire background knowledge on the subject of meteorology, rainfall and climate change enough to explain or answer the students questions. Also, they would have to learn how to make the activities interesting enough to maintain the students attention.
Meeting information requirements: Another programme that is similar to SPaRCE is the Streamwatch programme, which is being carried out in Australia. The Streamwatch programme has similar features, however, the focus is on water quality of rivers and streams in Australia instead of rainfall. With the same concept, the programme wants to raise awareness among school children by involving them in the data collection process of water samples from rivers and streams. Information from these students is sent to a responsible authority, in the case of Streamwatch, the Sydney Water Corporation for monitoring and control.
Procedures for feedback and review: As is mentioned the text, a key success of this programme is the exchange of information and experience among members of the SPaRCE. The central coordinator will answer questions and will also receive information from these members. The selection of means of communication for this programme is also a key to success. In the Pacific islands, radio is the most convenient and popular mean of communication, and the programme has used the radio to communicate with the members. This is why the ratings in this box, has been given a 1.
|
|
