Parents' Guide to

GLOBE Observer

By Debbie Gorrell, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Collect data as a citizen scientist; location required.

GLOBE Observer Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

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The idea of sharing scientific data with a global community centered around NASA is awesome, but primarily having only two options for environmental observations is limiting. Observing clouds and mosquito habitats using GLOBE Observer are interesting ways to study the environment, but adding more options would make the app much more appealing. Thankfully, special events like eclipses are timely add-ons, so kids can use their excitement to fuel their observations. There are a lot of excellent support tools for users, which is typical of NASA apps. Users can visit the GLOBE Observer website and access links to data, training, a summary of the app, and much more. Most importantly, it includes kids in a real-life scientific community, which makes data collection much less abstract and more exciting.

App Details

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