Polar Science Education

some resources about life on an Arctic Expedition to the Geographic North Pole via Microsoft Partners in Learning. I'd be delighted if people might like to use it :0) You'll find photo's, HD video, Power point presentation with teaching notes and a expedition life exercise book. from Antony Jinman, Polar Educator

Thanks Kathy! Great classroom resource.

"Second part of Ice Core Sampling sequence "

videos and related media

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

"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 WB Climate Change Portal is intended to provide quick and readily accessible climate and climate-related data to policy makers and development practitioners. The site also includes a mapping visualization tool (webGIS) that displays key climate variables and climate-related data.

Carbon counter shows the metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

This video is far less radical that the name suggests. A little longer than 10 minutes, it provides an excellent, albeit simplified, calm summary of the science. It does not ignore the cyclic nature of climate change yet it does put the human factor in place nicely. Be sure to watch all they way through the credits. The video is downloadable, and has a pdf page of the script with links to quality sites.

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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

Article from "Time" January 24, 2012

From the introduction: "This guide powerfully details many of the biases and barriers to scientific communication and information processing. It offers a tool-in combination with rigorous science, innovative engineering, and effective policy design-to help our societies take the pivotal actions needed to respond with urgency and accuracy to one of the greatest challenges ever faced by humanity: global-scale, human-induced environmental threats, of which the most complex and far reaching is climate change."

polar science curriculum resources

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."

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

"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."

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

Pan around the inside and outside of this historic site.

"This infographic offers a visual way to explore the various stages of the Earth's history using a 12 hour clock analogy." This is a good add-on to discussions of ice cores and the work of groups that are studying them!

"Climate Change Videos" There is a table of contents on the right side of the page. Weather Underground is the first Internet weather service, in existence since 1991. "Weather Underground is committed to delivering the most reliable, accurate weather information possible. Our state-of-the-art technology monitors conditions and forecasts for locations across the world, so you'll always find the weather information that you need."

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/

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.