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 is the Internation home for the 4th IPY. All kinds of good information, resources, and links here. Educators' link is in the left sidebar (First link under Partners).

IPY agencies

SnowSTAR 2007 was a Barrenlands Traverse project for IPY that has now ended and the site is no longer actively maintained. The website offers a great deal of good information that will let you incorporate history, math, social studies and more into your classroom, but there are a lot of incomplete pages as well. It seems to be most appropriate for 4 - 6 grades; but since it has some nice representations of things not seen elsewhere, it's worth a look for many levels.

Older sites, still useful

This is an older site by the same group that has Polar-Palooza. Although it's no longer updated, it is a good starting point for learning about Antarctica. There are many still-active links that lead to more good things.

Older sites, still useful

This site, no longer active, documents polar expeditions via two specific projects.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

This is an older, commercial advocacy site from Australia that has some merit in the links and the videos. Unfortunately, the videos sometimes load, and sometimes don't ; too bad, because they are very good (Recent trials have been more successful on a Mac than a PC). The target for this might be a stewardship or ethics discussion with upper middle or high school students. It's worth a look, even though it is an older site. If you can get your hands on "Sleeping Giants", it is a great basis for a deep discussion with high school and older groups.

Older sites, still useful

An Antarctica expedition by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The blogs are informative and the photos are great. The captions make them fun and very usable in the classroom

Older sites, still useful

This commercial site has some great free resources, too. Good FAQs and downloadable lessons make it worth a look. Students are intrigued by the aurora and this provides a good slide from cosmology to other polar studies.

Older sites, still useful

This site is no longer active, and unfortunately some sections were never completed. However, it has some good graphics and language that are especially usable with upper elementary students. There are some data sets that could be the basis for classroom analysis.

Older sites, still useful

older sites, still useful

This is the archive for the lesson plans and related materials for the TEA project (there are some excellent resources here) It is no longer active, although the parent ARMADA project is still underway. It is easier to link to it from this archive than it is to get to the TEA resources from ARMADA!.

Older sites, still useful

This is an older site that is still very useful. Not exclusively a polar science site, there are some great resources and activities for their expeditions to the poles. (Woods Hole can usually be relied on for high quality materials.)

Older sites, still useful

The NSTA Learning Center has resources free to all in addition to those accessible only to NSTA members. It contains archives of the IPY Symposia and related symposia from the various meetings. Web seminar materials are archived here as well.

New-ish site from National Geographic, it's a source of current news rather than an educator resource. But teachers need these too.

IGLO - International Action on Global Warming is certainly a site with an agenda, but it is well done and presents solid scientific data. For the educator, check the resources under the IGLO Toolkit menu item. Lots to explore!

Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. The education link on this page throws you to PolarTREC, but if you are looking for more in-depth work, there are plenty of opportunities here. Especially useful are the myriad links under the 'Hot Links' menu selection. Much is targeted to adult/advanced student audiences.

This is a great site for background information. It's more of a researcher and information site than an educational outreach site (although it has that, too). It's very accessible and a good resource to either review a topic or start learning about something. Targeted to older audiences, or some portions are suitable for upper middle school. NSIDC supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glacier, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere. Scientific data, whether taken in the field or relayed from satellites orbiting Earth, form the foundation for the scientific research that informs the world about our planet and our climate systems.

Free online digital library of media resources (video, interactive, audio, images) for classroom and teacher professional development. Many are OER (open educational resources). If you haven't been there lately, be sure to check out the upgrades to this PBS site resources are tied to specific state standards in most cases, and most materials are fair use and/or copyright free. Th

General science education

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 the educational site for the International Polar Foundation. The teaching units provided tend to be for higher level/grades than most of the other site. It is not extensive, but it is very good.

This is the homepage for the Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory. Many of the sidebar choices, besides the Educational Outreach, are very for many students. This easily addresses the IPY Key area of New Frontiers, and Unique Vantage Points and can slip polar science into those classes that don't deal with the earth/geo/environmental areas.