Greenwave

Scientists tell us that if we look at Europe from outer space we will see a green wave moving up across the continent in springtime. This is caused by the opening of the buds on the trees and hedges. It begins in the south of Europe in February and it moves up across Europe as temperatures rise, moving at the same speed as we might walk - four miles per hour.

The Greenwave project allows schools across Ireland to join in a mass experiment to officially track this spectacular natural phenomenon and to assess over time if climate change is altering its timing. Managed by Discover Science & Engineering, Greenwave now has a registration base of almost 2,000 primary school teachers.

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What they asked us to do

Xwerx has been involved in the ongoing evolution of greenwave.ie since 2006. One of the key challenges in developing the website has been to create a user-friendly, easy-to-learn method of submitting a Greenwave “sighting”. Given the largely non-technical audience, it was vital that this process was as streamlined as possible.

As we are now in the middle of our third Spring period, the emphasis is beginning to shift towards comparing the year-on-year submission data and assessing the trends inherent in that data.

In 2008, we integrated our CRM product, “Touchpoint”, to allow DSE personnel track usage of the website and administer registered teachers. This has proved immensely useful in assessing trends, communicating with teachers and reducing back-office administration effort.