This Earth Day represents the 20-year anniversary of The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, or GLOBE, a science and education program created by NASA in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

"GLOBE provides students and the public worldwide with the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to our understanding of the global environment and climate. The program not only engages students in learning about their local environment, it also empowers them to play an active role in adding to global data about our home planet," according to NASA administrator Charles Bolden in a press release.

GLOBE also has a hand in "STEM education research on new models for professional development of STEM educators and career technical education" and prides itself on sparking interest in STEM subjects for students nationwide. Further, it gives students a chance to interact not only with their environment, but also with the international science community.

Because GLOBE spans across a worldwide network, its database of student collected data exceeds 100 million environmental measures, and the "'data collected by GLOBE students are used in students' own scientific investigations and may also be used by the larger GLOBE community and scientists in research,'" said Tony Murphy, director of the GLOBE Implementation Office, according to the press release.

For this reason, to show appreciation, schools all over the country are celebrating GLOBE'S 20 year anniversary.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

04/21/2015