Group items tagged

Direct to NASA's IPY resources; Although this section of NASA's site appears to no longer be updated, there are many valuable links are resources here.

IPY agencies

Three main sections: History of Winter, Global Snowflake Network, and Thermocron Quest. This NASA site has some powerful resources that are beautifully done and very useful for the classroom.

snow and ice

Look here to find 'real' data that can be incorporated into lessons. There are also links to lesson plans from other teachers, and well as tutorials on ways to use data with GIS, TI-84 calculators, and spreadsheets.

modeling and data

"NASA scientist Thorsten Markus shares his expertise on polar ice in a lecture at the Library of Congress. In his lecture, Markus summarizes recent observations and findings-together with pictures from Arctic and Antarctic research campaigns-and puts those results into the bigger climate-system picture. He focuses on recent changes in the Arctic and in Antarctica. Markus explains why the two hemispheres react differently to climate change, and concludes his lecture by discussing current and future efforts to address the uncertainties and contradictions of the ice conditions."

videos and related media

While not directly "Polar Science", the poles are part of the earth system. "The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is a NASA, NSF and NOAA-supported program implemented by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) to improve the quality of geoscience instruction for pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers. Started in 2000, the program currently includes the participation of 40+ institutions, with over 3,000 teachers having completed an ESSEA course as of fall 2009."

"The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) is the first-ever true-color high-resolution satellite view of the Antarctic continent enabling everyone to see Antarctica as it appears in real life. The primary purpose of this site is to provide materials that will allow for both students and educators to explore the continent through the "Antarctic Mysteries" section. This web site is designed as part of the International Polar Year to familiarize people with Antarctica, to explore the richness of its features, to learn about why Antarctica matters to us all, and to explain and demonstrate how scientists use satellite imagery to study the continent. This site is a two-year project. We plan to periodically add content. Your feedback is sought to help us in improving the site. Please offer your suggestions. Thank you."

Offiical Honoree: 2009 Webby Awards. It reads like a junior version of the climate change page that came out of Copenhagen this year.

polar science