Polar Science Education

SnowSTAR 2007 was a Barrenlands Traverse project for IPY that has now ended and the site is no longer actively maintained.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

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.

An extraordinary collection targeted directly at the K-5 set (but much is of worth and adaptable to older students).

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.

Wonderful resource for sea ice information. It does not 'rise to the top' in Google! Resources and accessibility for K-12 educators continually improves, so it deserves a revisit if it's been awhile since you looked. This would be a good site to start student research (upper middle & high school).

From the above site, select "outreach" and read the blog of this group of multi disciplinary undergrads, grad students, K-12 teachers, and university faculty's Dec 07/Jan 08 trip to Antarctica. The blog could make a good mini-text or primer about Antarctica research. Since the conclusion of the expedition, the site has expanded to include photos, bios, and much more (through the Navigation links)

A remarkable site that has wonderful video podcasts from 'real' polar scientists talking in 'real' language to 'real' people. If the live tour comes near you, it is worth seeing - at the very least read the bios of the people involved. It's another insight to polar studies.

Antarctic Drilling program looks at geology and paleontology of the Antarctic region via sediment cores. Project Iceberg is the gateway for educators and directs you to a variety of resources. Flexhibit was designed as an activity for 4-H and similar after-school programs, but many of the ideas are transportable to your classroom. It would be great for a science club to develop as a community outreach event!

Polar research from the participants' view. Many journal and blogs from teacher researchers and scientists. Even if you are not able to go physically on a trek, travel virtually through the archives, or participate in a webcast from the poles. Dig around this site - there is more than can fit in a small blurb!

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.

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.