American students Durrell McCoy and Tyrone Williams, from the Mississippi School for the Deaf, and Vincent Riccobono, from the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, on a boat in Finnish waters.

The idea was bold. Students in 5,000 schools and 72 countries would help the world's scientists study El Niño. El Niño is the famous weather phenomenon that turns the earth's temperatures and rainfall upside down. Last year, people around the world experienced weather caused by El Niño. El Niño brought hot, wet weather to some lands and cool, dry weather to others.

	Perhaps this is the beginning of a new era where the hearing and deaf people toil together... —Vincent Riccobono, MSSD

Deaf students joined the project, too. They were part of Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE). GLOBE is a project of the United States of America and governments around the world to observe, record, and protect the earth's environment. Through GLOBE, students and scientists work together.

Learn more about GLOBE at: http://www.globe.gov.

Teens Do Science

Tyrone finds time for socializing and visiting with his Finnish hosts.

For several months, the students measured the rainfall and temperatures outside of their schools. Every day, they recorded the minimum and maximum temperatures. In winter, they measured how many inches of snow fell on the ground. In spring and fall, they measured the rainfall, too. The students also studied the clouds. They wrote down a description of the clouds-how many clouds were in the sky, and how thick the clouds were.

Then the students matched the results of their work with the scientists' predictions. Sometimes the students found that the scientists were right; occasionally, they found that the scientists were wrong. Scientists predicted that El Niño would cause warmer weather in Washington D.C.-and the weather there was even warmer than the scientists predicted. Scientists predicted that the weather in Mississippi would be wetter than usual. But students at the Mississippi School for the Deaf found the scientists were wrong. The weather outside of their school was drier than usual.

The students plotted their results. They looked at other graphs showing the results of El Niño through history. They saw that El Niño is a natural weather phenomenon of the earth. But El Niño -and its sister weather pattern La Niña-seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity.

Finland Invitation

Durrell gives an interview.

Last summer, 300 students from around the world were invited to participate in an international GLOBE conference to report on their data. The conference was in Helsinki, Finland. Three of the students were deaf-Tyrone Williams and Durrell McCoy, from the Mississippi School for the Deaf (MSD), in Jackson, Mississippi, and Vincent Riccobono, from the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), in Washington, D.C.

"It was a great conference," Durrell McCoy told the Finnish News Service. "It was neat to meet students from so many different countries…we were all alike in many ways."

Durrell noted that it was fun to meet famous scientists.

"We had seen their pictures in books," he said. "It was fun to be able to talk with them…they are real people."

The students presented their findings at the conference.

Deaf and Hearing Together

The deaf students and hearing students from around the world worked together at the conference, Durrell said, and they got along well.

"The other students did not seem to be afraid or move away when they knew I could not hear," he told reporters. "Some of the kids knew a little sign language and others used the ABC cards to spell."

With the computer, deaf students can be involved equally with hearing students in conferences such as GLOBE, Durrell told reporters.

"We did just as well as the hearing students," he noted. "I feel pride in our school getting to go."

Vincent Riccobono agreed.

"Perhaps this is the beginning of a new era where the hearing and deaf people toil together to uphold environmental stability," he said.

More about deaf students involved in GLOBE can be found at:
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/html/templ_GLEarchive.cgi?globe98
Thursday&lang=en&nav=1.

Deaf Schools Join Study

Thirty schools for deaf students joined GLOBE; 11 schools for deaf students collected data.

These schools were:

• Arizona School for the Deaf, Tucson, AZ;
• Idaho School for the Deaf, Gooding, ID;
• Katzenbach School for the Deaf, Trenton, NJ;
• Michigan School for the Deaf, Flint, MI;
• Mississippi School for the Deaf, Jackson, MS;
• Missouri School for the Deaf, Fulton, MO;
• Oklahoma School for the Deaf, Sulphur, OK;
• South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind, Spartanburg, SC;
• Learning Center for Deaf Children, Framingham, MA;
• Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, Pittsburgh, PA;
• Model Secondary School for the Deaf, Washington, DC.

General comments may be sent to: Ken.Kurlychek@gallaudet.edu

Last modified February 11, 1999
Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved
Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center

Gallaudet University 800 Florida Ave. NE Washington, DC 20002-3695