THIS PROJECT PROPOSES TO EXAMINE ENTRIES INTO THE 2018 INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM (IVSS) AND STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIA (SRS) AS TESTBEDS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENT RESEARCH INVESTIGATIONS ENCOURAGED AND SUPPORTED BY THE GLOBE PROGRAM. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS EVALUATION STUDY IS TO UNDERSTAND IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS THAT CHARACTERIZE GLOBE S STUDENT RESEARCH INITIATIVES AND CAPTURE GLOBE S ALIGNMENT TO THE RANGE OF POTENTIAL OUTCOMES THAT CAN BE ACHIEVED WITHIN A STUDENTCENTERED CITIZEN SCIENCE FRAMEWORK. THE PRIMARY DATA SOURCE WILL BE THE 113 ENTRIES INTO THIS YEAR S IVSS (INCLUDING POSTERS AND WRITTEN REPORTS) THE 110 ENTRIES INTO THE SRS EVENTS HELD ACROSS THE UNITED STATES AND AN ADDITIONAL SAMPLE OF LATE INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS (TOTAL ~250 PROJECTS UNDER CONSIDERATION). THE EVALUATION STUDY WILL INCLUDE A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBE STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS TO IDENTIFY KEY CHARACTERISTICS AND DIMENSIONS APPLICATION OF AN EMPIRICALLY-SUPPORTED TAXONOMY TO THE FULL SET OF 2018 SAMPLE PROJECTS A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF THE EXTENT TO WHICH VARIOUS DIMENSIONS ARE PRESENT ACROSS PROJECTS A NETWORK ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE EXTENT TO WHICH VARIOUS DIMENSIONS CO-EXIST AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A STATISTICALLY INFORMED CONCEPT MAP TO CLUSTER KEY DIMENSIONS. THE EVALUATORS WILL CREATE A SUITE OF BRIEFINGS AND SIMPLE TOOLS THAT THE GLOBE COMMUNITY CAN APPLY TO DESCRIBE ANALYZE OR TAG THE PRODUCTS OF STUDENT RESEARCH TO TELL GLOBE S STORY AND THAT NASA S SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE CAN USE TO UNDERSTAND GLOBE S CONTRIBUTION TO A CITIZEN SCIENCE PORTFOLIO.