Overview
This section is intended to identify active outreach projects of polar research programs.
If you would like your program referenced, please send a brief description of the outreach project, state what the project is about, and indicate the intended audience. Include also, if available, the URL specific to the outreach component, a digital logo, and contact information for those who may want to know more. Mail to:
General Public
Social Sciences Web Page. A web page illustrates four projects supported by the Arctic Social Sciences Program. Narratives written by scientists are translated into illustrated computer documents. The page is on the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center.
Leighton Taylor & Associates Join biologist and writer, Dr. Leighton Taylor, and nature photographer, Norbert Wu, as they dive with research teams beneath the ice of Antarctica's Ross Sea, observing and recording the underwater world of McMurdo Sound. Dr. Adam Marsh's Pages Information about diving, sea urchins, and the history of Antarctic exploration.
National Snow and Ice Data Centerreceives many questions about snow, ice, and climate from teachers and students at all levels -- primary school through university undergraduates. Though their data products are targeted for the science research community, they have created and compiled some education resources for teachers and students.
Researchers with the United States International TransAntarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) team up with the Boston Museum of Natural Science to share the field experience through Webcasts and online journals in "Secrets of the Ice."The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) links to a wide variety of educational outreach projects.
Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEA) Teachers parcticipate as members of polar research teams and share their experiences through e-mail and on-line journals.Graduate student Jerry Bowling posted images and journal entries from the field.
GLACIER Antarctic Earth science site that targets the general public. 
The Antarctic Sun Weekly summer report from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. 
Project Oceanography Parcticipants in an oceanographic research expedition along the East Antarctic margin will maintain a Web page while in the field.New South Polar Times A newsletter written by the staff of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, South Pole, Antarctica. This Internet newsletter to provides students and teachers around the world with information on Antarctica, the scientific research taking place there, and facts about life at the station.
K-12 Teachers
Live from
Antarctica 2 . Visit with the exciting researchers of Antarctica and learn about the science and extreme living conditions that make their jobs a true adventure. Explore the realm of baby penguins and ice sheets. Learn the latest about ozone, and global climate change! Site of the 1997 live Web project.
Blue Ice: Focus on Antarctica
investigates Antarctic life- and earth sciences in a series of on-line Web events. Each session includes daily postings, access to classroom resources, activities, and e-mail exchange between students and scientists, authors, and explorers.Antarctica. This Children's Television Workshop booklet provides a colorful overview of science in Antarctica for middle school students. While out of publication for the last few years, a new edition is in the works. Classroom sets of 25 copies can be obtained for ~$5.00 at 800-228-4630.
The South Pole Adventure Web Page from the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica shares the South Pole with elementary and middle school students through journals, connections with scientists, experiments and activities.
Teachers Experiencing
Antarctica and the Arctic Through TEA, teachers parcticipate as members of polar research teams and share their experiences via daily electronic journals, e-mail, and periodic Web broadcasts. Following the field work, parcticipants collaborate with colleagues and researchers to transfer the experience into the classroom via presentations, development of on-line activities, and mentoring of other teachers. New South Polar Times A newsletter written by the staff of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, South Pole, Antarctica. This Internet newsletter to provides students and teachers around the world with information on Antarctica, the scientific research taking place there, and facts about life at the station.
Into the Arctic A site designed to offer instructional materials and activities for teachers to use in the many contexts of their daily teaching routine. Information and activities are divided into four sections: Climate, Climate Change, El Niņo and the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2. Polar Connections The National Science Foundation's 1998 National Science & Technology Week focused on polar science. The Web site is available; hardcopy packets are hard to find.
LTER Schoolyard Sites connect three of the four polar LTER sites and K-12 students. Students collect data and compare them to similar data from polar regions. The Bonanza Creek, Alaska, LTER provides research collaboration with and training for teachers from Joy Elementary School and West Valley High School in Fairbanks. The McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER involves 9th to 12th graders at Lakeside School, Seattle, and Tuscaloosa Academy in Alabama. Palmer Station LTER builds on collaborative ongoing programs among Santa Barbara schools, the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis as well as with San Diego schools, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of California at San Diego, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center. K-12 Students
The South Pole
Adventure Web Page Science writer Janice VanCleave and Randy Landsberg of CARA (the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica) have gone to the ends of the earth to get kids excited about science. They invite you to join their expedition to the South Pole and try some experiments along the way!
Teachers Experiencing
Antarctica and the Arctic Through TEA, teachers parcticipate as members of polar research teams and share their experiences via daily electronic journals, e-mail, and periodic Web broadcasts. Following the field work, parcticipants collaborate with colleagues and researchers to transfer the experience into the classroom via presentations, development of on-line activities, and mentoring of other teachers. Arctic Connections is an interactive CD-ROM for middle school students produced by Scott A Elias of the University of Colorado, Boulder). The project will produce an inquiry-based CD-ROM to stimulate interest in science among Alaskan native students by showing the interaction of native environmental knowledge with "modern" science. The scientific content will include geology, biology, astronomy, climatology, and earth science.
Antarctica. This Children's Television Workshop booklet provides a colorful overview of science in Antarctica for middle school students. While out of publication for the last few years, a new edition is in the works. Classroom sets of 25 copies can be obtained for ~$5.00 at 800-228-4630.
Undergraduate Research Experiences
REU Site: Glacial geological research for undergraduates, Matanuska Glacier, Alaska. Undergraduates parcticipate in 6-week sessions of supervised data collection in glacial geology, sedimentology, glaciohydrology, or hydrogeology projects. Students complete their undergraduate thesis projects at their home institutions during the subsequent school year and are encouraged to present results at a national meeting.
Exploring Antarctic Technology Through Industrial Design, Engineering Mentorships, and Problem-Based Learning. Students work to solve problems presented by the extreme conditions at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The students work under polar engineers at Yerkes Observatory and may earn 3 academic credits for parcticipating.
Hamilton College Undergraduate Research in Antarctica. This program enables undergraduate students to become involved in Antarctic scientific work aboard the United States' Antarctic Program's research vessels. The Web site contains information about current research and past projects conducted by undergraduates.
Center for Geophysical Studies of Ice and Climate, St. Olaf College.
Interactive multi-media modules for undergraduates. Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State directed development of computer-based modules (global warming, the greenhouse effect, and ozone) for instruction in global environmental change courses.
Antarctic Science and Policy: Interdisciplinary Research Education (ASPIRE). Paul Berkman, Byrd Polar Research Center. The Ohio State University. A 70-page instruction for group decision-making and interdisciplinary approaches for earth system science education and includes nine student presentations. Students learn by refining questions, designing and implementing self-directed projects, and contributing to group decision-making efforts. ASPIRE is a model capstone course for Earth system science curricula emerging in universities. Interactive multimedia courseware helps students enhance inquiry skills.
Graduate and Post-Graduate Polar Research Community
Integrative Biology and Adaptation of Antarctic Marine Organisms. An international, advanced-level, graduate training course organized and taught in Antarctica at the Crary Science and Engineering Center, in McMurdo for one month. Students are introduced to the diversity of Antarctic biota and investigate unique biological adaptations that permit life in such extreme environments. Parcticipants designed their own experiments.
WAISCORES The WAISCORES project will recover and interpret two ice cores from the West Antarctic ice sheet. The information collected during this project will improve our ability to predict the significance of future climate changes to our society.
Caltech Glaciology Group, Glaciology and Ice Physics Web page. Barclay Kamb and Hermann Engelhardt, Caltech, Pasadena, California
Other Projects
Chautauqua Short Courses are an annual series of forums in which scholars at the frontiers of various sciences meet intensively for several days with undergraduate college teachers of science. The series is held at colleges and universities throughout the United States as well as at selected special sites. These forums provide an opportunity for invited scholars to communicate new knowledge, concepts, and techniques directly to college teachers in ways which are immediately beneficial to their teaching. The primary aim is to enable undergraduate teachers in the sciences to keep their teaching current. Two recent courses in the polar community include:
The Alaska Native Science Commission provides the primary link between the scientific community and Alaska natives. In its first year ANSC has organized and parcticipated in workshops on traditional knowledge, science education, and community involvement in science. These workshops have helped educate scientists about the needs and desires of native communities and educated native
Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Through an annual competition, the Office of Polar Programs provides authors and artists access to field sites and investigators.
Scouting in Antarctica. Girl Scouts of the USA and Boy Scouts of America organize Nationwide Antarctic competitions every 3 years to send a Scout to Antarctica, achieving polar science recognition among Scouts, integrating science and education, and providing the selected Scout a stimulating way to evaluate career options. Scouts work with polar researchers in a variety of settings. After their Antarctic trips the winning Scouts through Web pages and other means spread awareness to a potential audience of 8 million Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.
New ideas, suggestions for changes, recommendations for additions, etc. always are welcome and can be mailed to:
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