Science Education & Mentorship Projects Overview
GINA collaborates and partners with many organizations and agencies to bring data and geospatial science to Alaska. This table offers a look into some of these projects, specifically those related to GINA’s science education and mentoring efforts.
Current Projects
Investigators: Christina Buffington (Principal Investigator), Hannah Mair (Senior Personnel)
Grant Award: City University of New York, #CM0001577, through NASA
Years Funded: 2025, 2026
Partners:
The GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO) provides support to the GLOBE community worldwide. It works with scientists, educators, citizen scientists, and an extensive network of stakeholders to improve participation in the GLOBE Program, and support community initiatives in science, education, evaluation, technology, as well as the development of new science and education content.
Website: GLOBE Implementation Office (GIO)
News: Veenstra (June 18, 2025)
GLOBE Alaska & NASA SnowEx: Alaska Reciprocal Mentoring and Collaboration
Investigators: Christina Buffington (Principal Investigator), Co-Investigators are Carrie Vuyovich, Elena Sparrow
Grant Award: NASA, #80NSSC24K0117, through Earth Science Division (ESD) under the Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
Years Funded: 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027
Partners:
This project seeks to create reciprocal mentoring opportunities between K-12 students and their educators, undergraduate students, NASA SnowEx scientists, and NASA mentors. The project aims to create conditions for GLOBE student scientists contribute to the goals of the 2022-2023 Alaska NASA SnowEx campaign; expand opportunities for NASA SnowEx scientists to collaborate with GLOBE students and communities, and facilitate a working group to begin to plan a citizen and community science project for seasonal snow research that is both locally relevant and applicable to NASA Earth Science.
Website: NASA SnowEx
News: NASA Science Editorial (July 14, 2025)
Snow Loads on Roofs
Investigators: Jennifer Schmidt (Principal Investigator), Co-Investigators are Jennifer Delamere, Christina Buffington, Yifan Cheng, Cenlin He, Andrew Newman
Grant Award: National Science Foundation, #2438848-000, through Confronting Hazards, Impacts and Risks for a Resilient Planet (CHIRRP)
Years Funded: 2025, 2026, 2027
Partners: State University of New York, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
This project will examine the many impacts of heavy snow loads on roofs in Anchorage, Alaska, and explore ways people and businesses perceive and can mitigate risk and prevent building collapses. To do so, the project will combine approaches in modeling, community surveys and youth education efforts. Through improved modeling, this project will improve predictions for water levels, power generation, and transportation. The information generated through community surveys and meetings will guide businesses and residents on when and how to safely remove snow. Education efforts will advance STEM knowledge among youth and make generations more aware of snow science and load hazards.
News: Stricker (Dec. 2, 2025); Hughes (Dec. 3, 2025); Fellows (Dec. 4, 2025)
Mapping the Mismatch: Snow Models vs Reality in Alaska using NASA SnowEx Data
Investigators: Christina Buffington (Principal Investigator), Hannah Mair (Research Mentor) with with University of Alaska Fairbanks; Melissa Wrzesien (Principal Investigator and Research Mentor), Co-Investigators are Carrie Vuyovich, Sujay Kumar
Grant Award: University of Maryland Subaward, #2438848-000, through NASA Terrerestrial Hydrology Program
Years Funded: 2025, 2026
Partners: University of Maryland
This project partners a GINA/NASA SnowEx undergraduate intern with NASA and GINA mentors to gain hands-on experience working with satellite and ground-based datasets that estimate Alaskan snow characteristics. Intern and mentors analyze and interpret remote sensing observations, apply the data to snow models, and compare the results with ground-based boreal forest and tundra snow measurements from the 2023 NASA SnowEx campaign. The project is interested in modeling uncertainty in mid-winter melt events and spring snowmelt periods.
Past Projects
Investigators: Natalie Monacci (Principal Investigator), Christina Buffington, Jasmine Shaw, with University of Alaska Fairbanks; Simone Alin, with NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Grant Award: NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, #NA24OARX017G0014-T1-01
Years Funded: 2024, 2025, 2026
Partners: UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, Ocean Acidification Research Center
4-H pH is an ocean education project with youth ages 5-12 in an afterschool program in Sheet’ká (Sitka) and in summer camps in Aangóon (Angoon) and Séet Ká Kwáan (Petersburg), Alaska. Youth use GLOBE protocols to monitor seawater pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen alongside Tribal monitoring professionals and research scientists while learning about local ocean acidification and contribute to data and solutions.
Announcement: NOAA OAP homepage
News: Stricker (June 5, 2025); Buffington et al. (July 2, 2025); Shaw (Sept. 26, 2025)