QPL Teams Up with NASA to Study Clouds

A photo of the Sky Window displays at Baisley Park Library, created by QPL librarian Rose Kelly-Lyons.

Authors: Rosalba Giarratano, Rita Karl, and Rose Kelly-Lyons

Clouds come in all shapes and sizes, and observing them can be a fun family activity. But did you know that your cloud observations can help scientists?

Queens Public Library (QPL) is collaborating with the NASA GLOBE Clouds team to engage children and their families in learning to identify different types of clouds.

Turns out that while there are several satellite missions that collect data about clouds, NASA uses different perspectives to study the atmosphere. In other words, scientists need help from the ground. So, the NASA GLOBE Clouds team is always looking for as many ground cloud observations as possible to complement what satellites can see from above. Clouds are very important for our weather and our climate. For example, different types of clouds can either block or let pass different amounts of sunlight, affecting our temperature.

The GLOBE Observer app invites you to make observations of your environment (including clouds) that complement NASA satellite observations. By using the GLOBE Observer app, you are joining the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) community and contributing important scientific data to NASA and GLOBE, your local community, and students and scientists worldwide.

To share your observations of clouds using the GLOBE Observer app, you will need to identify the different cloud types you see in the sky. Distinguishing among cloud types and remembering the names associated with cloud types can be tricky. So, several QPL librarians and members of the NASA GLOBE Clouds team have been working together testing several resources to learn about clouds!

At Baisley Park in Queens, Children’s Librarian Rose Kelly-Lyons hosts storytime in the morning and gardening sessions in the afternoon. Throughout July 2024, Rose’s group read cloud-themed books in the morning and later practiced a cloud dance in the garden. After dancing, they looked up to the sky and identified which clouds they could see. When it was time to close up the garden, some kids played a card cloud identification game to continue learning about clouds.

The cloud dance Rose did with her group is based on the three main types of clouds. Here is a YouTube video of NASA GLOBE Clouds Project Scientist Marilé Colón Robles and her two daughters demonstrating the moves of the cloud dance. Rose expanded the dance by adding a clap for thunder and a squat for precipitation!

Rose was also able to spotlight the cloud dance in two other programs. Once in “Dance, Dance, Library,” a full hour of dance games. This was special as one child already knew it from the garden and demonstrated it for other children, right next to Rose. The other time was during a scheduled summer camp visit where the topic was “jobs in the library”. According to Rose, the cloud dance was a helpful way to get the wiggles out, advertise the gardening program, and bust misconceptions about what happens in a library. One camper was convinced that scientists couldn’t work in a library or even need a library. However, now all those campers appreciate the fact that librarians and scientists do have opportunities to work together.

Rose also placed a Sky Window at Baisley Park Library. It is at the right height, so when a child looks through it they are able to see the clouds outside and practice identification.

If you want to learn about clouds at QPL or beyond, Rose recommends observing the clouds while on a picnic, doing the cloud dance as a road trip group stretch (as she did with her friends), or combining both activities as a wake up transition technique (wake up, dance, and look out the window).

Now, Queens is home to people who speak many different languages. Below we are highlighting several resources available for you and your family to learn about clouds. Some of them are available both in English and in Spanish, and some storybooks and activity sheets are also available in Arabic, French, and German!

Thank you to the QPL librarians who helped with this project and provided resources: Rose Kelly-Lyons, Raquel Parrilla, Uriel A. Hernandez Bonifacio, and Oksana Kondrashrova.