IPY Education Results 2006
Awardees
INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION
IPY: Engaging Antarctica
J. Michael Farrell, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, jfarrell1@unl.edu
The goal of IPY: Engaging Antarctica is to increase public awareness and understanding
of Antarctic geological research and discovery through a NOVA episode featuring the
Antarctic Drilling Project (ANDRILL) and studies of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).
The program will air on PBS in 2009. NOVA Online will create a companion site for the
program, which will include a teacher guide and 24/7 access to the streamed program.
The community outreach effort will include activities of interest to youth organizations,
schools, libraries, and small museums. A low cost, high utility exhibit, the Engaging
Antarctica Flexhibit, will be developed in conjunction with educators participating in the
ANDRILL field project. The Flexhibit will be distributed to community-based sites via
collaboration with 22 state 4-H programs. All the project’s learning resources will
address national science education standards. Multimedia research and the University of
Nebraska Center for Instructional Innovation will conduct evaluation of the project.
Polar-Palooza
Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles Productions,
ghs@passporttoknowledge.com
http://passporttoknowledge.com/polar-palooza/
Polar-Palooza combines scientists and multi-media presentations on a national tour,
under the title Stories from a Changing Planet, visiting science centers, museums,
libraries and schools across North America, including Canada and Mexico. The
presentations will be augmented by high definition video taped on location at the Poles,
audio and video podcasts, and special education and outreach activities for targeted
audiences. Stories from a Changing Planet will provide these diverse audiences with
opportunities to meet and interact directly with polar experts and to appreciate why the
Poles and the research being done there are directly relevant to their lives. The “HiDef
Video Science Story Capture Corps” is a team of professional videographers, using the
latest generation of low-cost, high-quality cameras, deployed to both Poles to document
the work of multiple researchers and projects, rather than focusing on one topic for one
single broadcast. The resulting HD footage will be cataloged, archived and made
available as public domain material, accessible to government research agencies for
media releases, to the researchers and their home universities, and to science centers
and museums. POLAR-PALOOZA will edit short video and audio podcasts from this
archive, and distribute them through an open network of websites, including iTunes,
Google, Yahoo, and the official IPY, US-IPY, NSF and NASA websites and provide
footage to NSF to distribute openly.
Live from the Poles: A Multimedia Educational Experience
Christopher Linder, Woods Hole Ocean Institution, clinder@whoi.edu
Paul Fontaine, Museum of Science Boston, pfontaine@mos.org
This project brings together science centers, polar researchers and broadcast media
reporters to tell the story of four polar research expeditions to the general public,
teachers and students. Four expeditions will be featured, focusing on three primary IPY
research emphasis areas defined by NSF:
 Life in the Cold and Dark
 Arctic Observing Network
 Ice Sheet History and Dynamics
A science writer and a professional photographer/oceanographer reporting on each
expedition will do daily Webcasts, real-time phone patches to audiences at the Museum
of Science, Boston, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, National Public Radio
stations, CBS News, and to student “reporters” writing for Scholastic Online. A museum
exhibit at the WHOI Exhibit Center will highlight polar research. Components of the
exhibit will either travel to partner museums or be replicated in Boston and Washington,
D.C., Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, and Houston, along with broadcasts on University of
California TV.
Pole to Pole
Moira Rankin, Soundprint Media Center, Inc., moira@soundprint.org
This project uses multi-part radio documentaries, short radio features, an audio and
educational clearinghouse and related educational website to reach a broad public
audience. There will be at least four radio documentaries per year, each approximately
30 minutes long, and 40-50 shorter features during the two-year International Polar Year
(March 2007-2009). The programs will be produced with four international radio partners
(The BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Deustche-Welle, and Radio New
Zealand). Features will be broadcast on National Public Radio station affiliates, Sirius
satellite radio, podcasting, and a worldwide audience (including a large American
audience) through U.S. and international broadcast by the BBC World Service.
FORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION – Graduate and Undergraduate Focus
Adapting SENCER to the Arctic - Improving Polar Science Education as a
Legacy
Lawrence Duffy, University of Alaska Fairbanks, fychem@uaf.edu
Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) is an
approach to undergraduate course development supported by NSF. Collaborators from
UAF’s department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Honors Program, Alaskan Native
Science and Engineering Program, and Environmental Quality Engineering program will
use the SENCER model to develop the course “Environmental Radioactivity,
Stewardship and People in the North”. The course enhances both the infrastructure and
pedagogical practices at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and will share bestpractices through partnerships in the University of the Arctic (UARCTIC) and
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International Polar Year (IPY). Among its innovations the course will include 1) an
interdisciplinary exploration of radioactivity and stewardship in the biogeochemical,
geopolitical, and cultural context of the circumpolar north and 2) engagement of students
in communities via community-based research projects. The ongoing research and
monitoring of radioactivity by UAF faculty and students will be integrated into the course.
Guest speakers from the Alaskan Native community will join in exploring the impact of
diversity on science policy and stewardship. The impact of nuclear weapons
development on the Aleuts will be highlighted, as well as the future development of
nuclear power in the Arctic. To learn more about SENCER visit
http://www.sencer.net/index.cfm.
IPY-ROAM: International Polar Year Research and Educational
Opportunities in Antarctica for Minorities
Craig Tweedie, University of Texas El Paso, ctweedie@utep.edu
This project focuses on involving underrepresented minorities in polar science to build
on their skills and support their interest in continuing on to higher degrees or careers in
science. Fifteen undergraduate students, five graduate students in a variety of fields and
five high school science teachers selected through a nation-wide search will participate
in an experience culminating in a 3-week trip from Tierra del Fuego to Antarctica aboard
a tourist vessel. Preparation for the trip will be through web-cast lectures. From the field,
participants will do live broadcasts and communicate their experiences via the web.
Lectures will be about the Antarctic system to topics such as ecotourism. During the 811 landings, students will conduct hands-on research projects of their own design with
guidance from the participating mentors. Participants will archive their data with the
National Snow and Ice Data Center and where possible, publish their results. This
project provides the next generation of scientists and teachers of scientists with first
hand experience in polar field-based research and system science.
Fostering Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Relationships among the "New
Generation" of Polar Researchers Participating in the IPY
Susan Weiler, Whitman College, weilercs@whitman.edu
Sheldon Drobot, University of Colorado Boulder, drobot@colorado.edu
The Next Generation Polar Research (NGPR) Symposium will bring together past,
current, and “new” polar investigators from diverse physical and social science
disciplines and to cultivate cross-disciplinary interactions during the IPY. This will provide
the new generation with a common sense of history and purpose, increase their
understanding of each others’ work, give them insights for conveying the essence of
polar regions and their particular research beyond academia, and promote connections
among research during IPY and in the years ahead. The net result will be a cadre of
scientists prepared to carry on the IPY tradition and better equipped to handle pressing
science questions of today and tomorrow, and a set of collegial connections that can
flourish over their professional lifetimes.
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FORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION – K-12 Student and Teacher Focus
Polar TREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating
Wendy Warnick, Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S., warnick@arcus.org
www.polartrec.com
Polar TREC–Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating–is a three-year
teacher professional enhancement program that will advance polar science education by
bringing K-12 educators and polar researchers together in hands-on field experiences in
the Arctic and Antarctic. Thirty-six teachers will spend 2-6 weeks in the Arctic or
Antarctic studying a topic relevant to IPY, with "Live from IPY" calls, Internet
presentations, and podcasts from the field, daily teacher journals, interactive bulletin
boards, photo galleries, online multimedia learning resources and activities, and
participation in CARE (Connecting Arctic/Antarctic Researchers and Educators)
webmeetings to support translation of experiences into the classroom and beyond.
PolarTREC activities and products will foster the integration of research and education to
produce a legacy of long-term teacher-researcher collaborations, improve teacher
content knowledge and teaching practices, share online learning resources based on
real-world science, improve student knowledge of and interest in the Arctic and
Antarctic, and engage the public broadly in polar science. Evaluation of PolarTREC will
provide a basis for replicating or expanding the program structure and best practices.
Teachers' Domain - Polar Sciences
Theodore Sicker, WGBH Educational Foundation, ted_sicker@wgbh.org
www.teachersdomain.org
This project builds upon and expands the power, scope, and established user base of
WGBH’s Teacher's' Domain (www.teachersdomain.org), a featured portal in the National
Science Digital Library (NSDL) supported by NSF over the past five years. Teacher’s
Domain is an online, searchable digital library collection of media-based resources
providing classroom teaching resources and a series of professional development
course modules addressing national teaching standards. WGBH will develop a “Polar
Sciences” special collection of 20 rich-media resources, along with a lesson plan that
integrates these resources and addresses curricular needs at middle and high school
grade levels. Serving as a platform for additional media-based educational resources
developed during and after IPY, the collection will also include a new “guided
exploration” component that features multi-media resources produced as part of field
experiences conducted through the Polar TREC program at the Arctic Research
Consortium of the U.S.
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ADDITIONAL IPY EDUCATION AWARDS
National Science Teachers Association Symposia for IPY
Al Byers, National Science Teachers Association, abyers@nsta.org
www.nsta.org
The National Science Teachers Association is the largest and oldest national
organization of K-12 science teachers, with over 55,000 members. Each year there is an
annual meeting with upwards of 30,000 participants and regional meetings to serve a
broad cross-section of the country. NSF, NASA and NOAA have cofunded this effort to
focus three symposia at the national meeting, not on particular agency efforts, but on
IPY science through three themes: Ice, Life, and Water and Air. NSTA focuses on
promoting innovation and excellence in science teaching and learning as well as the
professional development of teachers to teach science. At NSTA meetings, teachers are
exposed to current information in science and science education, which makes this an
ideal venue for connecting K-12 educators and administrators with IPY 2007 curriculum
materials and information. IPY 2007 begins in March 2007. The NSTA national meeting
will be in St. Louis, Missouri March 28 - April 1, 2007, an ideal time to involve teachers in
IPY science and provide them with the resources to leverage the inherent interest in the
polar regions to teach science in accordance with national science education standards.
NSTA together with researchers supported by NSF, NASA and NOAA will develop
content for the symposia and online instruction following the conference. Symposia have
a short overview session followed by a full day of presentations focusing on aspects of
the science theme. Content will focus on the most current polar research in these areas
and tie it to numerous national science teaching standards. This project is to hold one
regional symposia at the meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah December 7-9, 2006 and one
symposia at the national meeting in St. Louis.
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