Group items tagged

This site and document will help educators integrate the polar regions into their curricula. From the site: "The Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI), funded by the National Science Foundation, has gathered and codified the underlying understandings of Earth sciences into a succinct document that will have broad-reaching applications in both public and private arenas. It establishes the "Big Ideas" and supporting concepts that all Americans should know about Earth sciences. The resulting Earth Science Literacy framework will also become part of the foundation, along with similar documents from the Oceans, Atmospheres and Climate communities, of a larger geoscience Earth Systems Literacy effort."

polar science curriculum resources

This a polar science collection aimed at the middle grades. The Middle School Portal is a pathway (and more) of the National Science Digital Library; literacy maps and benchmarks are tied to the materials via a quick scroll and mouse click.

"Reading and thinking about International Polar Years: five recent books by Dave Carlson Abstract: Within the polar science community the Polar (and Geophysical) Years represent signal events. We often read, largely within geoscience literature, that those events represented positive and dramatic steps forward in international science. From five recent books - two historical compilations and three personal narratives - augmented by interviews with a few key participants, a more cautious picture emerges, of remarkable successes but also of occasional or even persistent missteps and deficiencies. An improved understanding of the IPY concept and experience can provide useful guidance for future polar and global science."

"The Polar Science Center (PSC) is a unit of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. Polar Science Center researchers observe and model the physical processes that control the nature and distribution of sea ice and polar ice sheets, the structure and movement of high-latitude oceans, and the interactions between air, sea, ice and biota. The Center has made major contributions to the understanding of how the arctic system has undergone important changes during the past four decades."

Polar Science

"NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, has teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to produce Science of the Olympic Winter Games, a 16-part video series that explores the science behind individual Olympic events, including Downhill and Aerial Skiing, Speed Skating and Figure Skating, Curling and Hockey, and Ski Jumping, Bobsledding and Snowboarding."

videos and related media

Weatherandclimate.net provides weather and climate science resources to broadcast meteorologists. Offerings include climate science news, consensus reports and briefings.

Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science. Well, okay… not a polar resource. But this relatively new advocacy organization that endeavors to promote public awareness and understanding of science. It has big name supporters that suggest it will be an ever growing resource deserving of periodic visits to the site.

climate advocacy

"The goal of Skeptical Science is to explain what peer reviewed science has to say about global warming. "

"Global warming has been a topic of concern and much controversy for many years. Whatever the disagreements have been in the past, most scientists and policy makers now recognize that if the Earth's surface temperatures continue to rise as much as they have in the past decade or so, then many parts of the world could face dire consequences, including food and water shortages, coastal flooding, and health consequences. Based on the Koshland Science Museum's exhibit Global Warming: Facts and Our Future, the following webquest will allow students to learn firsthand how society and environment might be impacted by global warming and how to help people make better decisions regarding all the complicated issues surrounding climate change, energy use, and available policy options. Students will take on the role of scientist, business leader, or policy maker and be part of a climate action team, which will make some of the same discoveries and decisions that are made in the "real world" every day. "

Polar Science Curriculum Resources

With literacy maps and benchmarks tied to the materials via a quick scroll and mouse click, NSDL is becoming indispensable for the science educator. This link is to the whole house!

General science education

This is a Polar Science Special Collection from PBS' Teachers Domain. If you haven't been there lately, be sure to check out the upgrades to this PBS site. It is free to join, has excellent resources (tied to specific state standards in most cases), and most materials are fair use and/or copyright free.

A 2008 Webby Award Honoree for best Science Ice Stories presents and archives 'dispatches from polar scientists.' Nice link to the South Pole Telescope and other materials, too.

polar science

Not an obvious resource page for most teachers, but there is a wealth of information here, not just for IPY! Educators should look for the "Classroom Resources" item on the right sidebar and that page will let them refine their search. The news items are also great for informing students on latest and breaking research in many areas.

general science education

This site, no longer active, documents polar expeditions via two specific projects. 'The Case of the Elusive Element' studies phytoplankton populations. 'POP Goes Antarctica' studies pollutants in the food chain. Both would be good to use with middle school students. 'What is Polar Science?' is an excellent primer for all, and there are many good links to activities and other sites (that still appear to be active). An oldie but goodie.

Older sites, still useful

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."

"Carbon Brief reports on the latest developments in climate science, and fact-checks stories about climate and energy online and in the press. We provide briefings on the people and organisations talking about climate change, and we produce background materials on science issues and news stories."

"Welcome to the National Center for Science Education's climate change education initiative. Long respected for its work in defending and supporting the teaching of evolution in the public schools, in 2012 NCSE launched this new initiative to defend and support the teaching of climate change. This section of the website includes the four main sections of the climate change education resources here."

Webquest to accompany Glencoe's "Earth Science: Geology, the Environment, and the Universe" Unit 7: Resources and the Environment

Polar Science Curriculum Resources

"Science: Methane Gas Release from Arctic Permafrost is Far Larger Than Expected Ancient permafrost submerged in the Arctic Ocean is releasing methane gas into the atmosphere at rates comparable to previous estimates for all the world's oceans combined, researchers say. This underwater permafrost represents a large but previously overlooked source of methane, and experts say that similar but more widespread emissions of the gas could have dramatic effects on global warming in the future."

Polar Science News

This podcast series contains many topics that often arise during polar science studies in the classroom. This link goes to the topic list. "Global Challenges Chemistry Solutions, launched in 2008, received a coveted Gold Medal as the best podcast in the national awards competition sponsored by Association TRENDS, the national newspaper for associations."

topics related to polar science