Polar Science Education

From Wisconsin Public Radio "The Best of Our Knowledge" - some books, some links, some music

Indigenous observations of Arctic environment change. an excellent read. Not an ebook, but you can read it online.

The R/V Knorr sets sail from the capital city of the Azores, Porta Delgada, on June 10, 2010 with researcher Lloyd Keigwin, his science team, the crew of the R/V Knorr and three teachers from Massachusetts. This research cruise will take them all the way across the North Atlantic back to R/V/ Knorr's homeport at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) over the course of three weeks. One thing about WHOI - their work is of such good quality, that the blog will be useful far beyond the life the expedition!

"This year there will be two teams of researchers heading out on two different traverses to conduct snow surveys. The first team, SnowSTAR-2010-West consists of Matthew Sturm, Jon Holmgren, John Burch, and Henry Huntington. They have recently embarked on a traverse that will take them from Fairbanks to Barrow then over to Prudhoe Bay, over the course of four weeks."

Resources accrued during the STEM IPY workshop sessions - most relate direction to the daily topics and activities. The home page for this (the activities and more can be found here) is http://umassk12.net/ipy/

"IPY STEM Polar Connections is a curriculum development and professional development program that explores global climate change and its impact on the Arctic and Antarctic. It includes residential summer institutes for in-service teachers who are involved in the professional development of their colleagues. During each summer institute, teachers are introduced to hands-on STEM Polar Connections materials that model a variety of proven techniques for effective teaching, including inquiry-based teaching and cooperative learning."

"Online materials about Alaska Native history, education. languages, and culture"

"The Web Site edition of Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary has been revised to reflect the most current changes made to the Iñupiat spelling system since the 1970 edition. Those changes include replacing the k (with a dot underneath) to the letter q representing the sound farther back in the throat than k or g. Although many changes were needed in the postbases section, only those changes that could be fixed easily were done rather than revising the entire section. The postbase section was, for that reason, left in its original form with only a few changes made. "

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."

"These explorations were developed in honor of a scientific celebration of Earth's polar regions, The International Polar Year (IPY) of 2007-9. The activities are suitable for children ages 8-13 unless otherwise noted in the "activities" section. Discover links to additional games, activities, and information in the "further resources" section."

"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."

"By using our extensive international networks to develop a range of perspectives we will help to increase the understanding of climate change issues, leading to consensus building about climate actions and solutions. Our Climate Change programme will help: achieve understanding of the case for tackling climate change now mobilise public pressure for progress on international agreements establish relationships and networks which lead to action"

Mirror Site of this Diigo Group

Polar Science Curriculum Resources

"The State of the Arctic Conference: "At the Forefront of Global Change"... The main goal of the conference is to review our understanding of the arctic system in a time of rapid environmental change. Sessions will be streaming and open to all. It will provide an open international forum for discussion of future research directions aimed toward a better understanding of the arctic system and its trajectory. Topics will range from basic understanding of the Arctic and system-wide change to developing response strategies to adapt and mitigate change."

Polar Science News

The Antarctic Connection™ is an internet based e-tailer and information source for All Things Antarctic!™. Our goal is to become the largest and best source for premium Antarctic related products as well as provide a vast center for news, weather and information from and about the frozen continent." A commercial site with some good info to get students engaged.

Polar Science

"Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI). The Institute is a well-known and long-established centre for research into both polar regions. It is part of the University of Cambridge and is a sub-department of the Department of Geography"

Polar 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

"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

"Methane Releases From Arctic Shelf May Be Much Larger and Faster Than Anticipated"

Polar Science