14th annual GLOBE Games

The annual GLOBE Games in Estonia, this time organized by Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium, took place from 8th to 11th August at Jõulumäe, Pärnu County. Almost 150 students, teachers and instructors from 26 different Estonian schools took part in the camp. Guests from Czech Republic were really pleased with our event. Within four days students explored nature and surroundings of Jõulumäe. They completed a lot of experiments and learned about new equipment such as measuring tools.

The chief organiser Laura Altin said that the main idea of this camp was to educate young people and bring them closer to science. Students learned how to carry out experiments and take measurements and teachers explained the importance of the results. The instructors were from the University of Tartu and Estonian University of Life Sciences.

The GLOBE Games was opened by Arvet Silk, a GLOBE teacher, Kaido Reivelt, GLOBE Estonia Coordinator, the chairman of Saarde Parish council Erli Aasamets and a graduate from The GLOBE program Tomas Tunkl from Czech Republic. The first day also included learning sessions for students to prepare them for the following day.

On the second day students went to nearby forest where they had to use their knowledge learned the day before to manage their task. Their knowledge from natural science classes turned out to be useful. Students also found the tasks practical, because there might be situations in real life where one has to find his way in forest using a map and landmarks.

On the third day US Ambassador Michael C. Polt and Economic Officer Brian Frere visited the GLOBE camp. They observed how the tasks of the day were carried out and watched participants playing GLOBE games. Michael C. Polt said that he had never before seen such kind of passion and interest for science like in Estonia. ‘Older students teach younger ones and an exact and accurate result matters to everybody,“ said Polt.

The crew for TV program “Suvel võib” came to film the GLOBE Games and the story was shown on national TV. During the interview the Ambassador said that it was really important for all of us to realize that the world is getting smaller, not larger and these young people should take every opportunity to develop and remember how important science is to human progress.

On the fourth day of the camp the students made presentations about what they had measured and observed during the expedition to the forest and what conclusions can be made out of the gathered data. Afterwards the instructors, organisers from Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium and the best participants were acknowledged. Students said that the GLOBE Games had been very interesting and they were quite sad they had to leave.

The camp was organised by students from Kilingi-Nõmme Gymnasium: Hendri Parrol, Henry Olde, Rando Tõnisson, Rait-Eino Laarmann, Ott Eerik Pärtel, Anett-Hildegard Laarmann and teachers Elli Altin, Sirje Jakobson, Anne Aasamets and Erli Aasamets.

Written by a student Anett-Hildegard Laarmann

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