Life Science Collection

This article describes the upcoming travels of PolarTREC science teacher Nell Kemp from Kenwood Academy High School’s Academic Center. Ms. Kemp will be traveling to Toolik Field Station in Alaska to examine how arctic wolf spiders influence arctic food webs.

This story in Discover magazine profiles the work of the WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) project team and the challenges faced by drilling thousands of feet into the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to reach a lake buried for millennia.

Overview

Coring trees is a way of learning about trees without cutting them down. When a tree is cored, the rings are examined to learn about the history and growth of a tree. In this lesson students will participate in a hands-on activity to help them investigate what information can be gained by studying and comparing tree core samples collected

Overview

Students will measure and analyze features of two different species of trees by using their cross-sections (cookies). Further analyses will allow students to graph their results and apply the knowledge gained to an understanding of tree growth, health and diversity.

Objectives

• Students will use and understand the following terms: radius, diameter, circumference and area of a circle.

Overview

One of the first things to understand about the Antarctic ecosystem is what kinds of animals actually live there. This lesson provides a basic introduction to important Antarctic wildlife and how they interact with each other.

Objectives

1. Students will be able to create a food web of the Antarctic ecosystem.
2. Students will be able to identify the

Overview

Small groups of students will establish their own phenology plots for long term study. Students will make a field sketch of a sample plot and turn it into a scale map. The map will accurately place plants the students have identified for tracking phenophases, so that the plots can be monitored long term. Phenology is a vital part of

Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles profiles one of its alumni, teacher Cristina Solis who also happens to be a PolarTREC alumnus. Read about her journey to become an educator and her participation in a PolarTREC study of microbial activity in thawing arctic permafrost near Barrow, Alaska.

Overview

Students will investigate the breadth and depth of science taking place in the Polar Regions by reading and learning about one PolarTREC expedition and sharing it with the class.

Objectives

* To expose students to the wide variety of science happening in the Polar Regions * To help students understand the process of science by examining one

In this article, PolarTREC teacher Elizabeth Eubanks recounts her experience bringing her students - three eighth-graders and two seventh-graders to a week-long research conference in Alaska. "Having my students present at an international professional science conference is above and beyond any experience that I can offer them as a science teacher".

The Transantarctic Mountains are an extreme example of rift flank uplift, extending over 3500 km across Antarctica and reaching elevations up to 4500 m (see map of the region). The mountain range was formed in the extensional environment associated with the breakup of Gondwanaland. Geological and geophysical work has shown that the Transantarctic Mountains developed along a long-lived lithospheric boundary

Newsday reporter Jennifer Smith blogs dispatches from Toolik Lake, Alaska about science underway at the research station, including the work of researcher Amanda Koltz on predatory spiders.

The team deploys a plankton trawl and other scientific equipment. Dr. Carin Ashjian, Dr. Robert Campbell, Dr. Steve Okkonen, Phil Alatalo.

PolarTREC teacher Alicia Jenks is inspiring her students with her expedition to Toolik Field Station, Alaska. She will be studying Arctic Ground Squirrels.

Article about earth science and environmental science teacher Mike LeBaron's expedition to Antarctica as part of the WISSARD project (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

This San Francisco Examiner talks with the PolarTREC teacher Amber Lancaster in Antarctica and her marine biology students back in San Francisco and the impact of the experience on their lives.

Cape Washington Emperor Penguin Rookery. Once the team landed, what transpired over the next 45 minutes cannot be told but can only be shown. Check out this amazing view of the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica.

National Geographic article about the WISSARD project that is studying subglacial lakes and streams in Antarctica.

Overview

Students will conduct a soil study by investigating pH and water absorption.

Objectives

Students will learn: * How to describe the composition of soil and explain how it forms. * That soil is made up of tiny particles of rock, plant, and animal matter. * How to determine whether a solution is acidic, basic, or neutral. *

PolarTREC teacher Tim Spuck participates in work at Cape Royds, Antarctica studying an Adelie penguin colony.

Overview

Students will investigate what a carbon footprint is and calculate their own personal carbon footprint. Finally, students will develop ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Objectives

• Students will know that the principles of chemistry underlie the functioning of biological systems.
• Students will know that carbon, because of its ability to combine in many ways with

This video of the seafloor in Barrow Canyon, off the coast of Alaska is to accompany the presentation, 'The Arctic Ocean Ecosystem: Status and Trends in the Pacific Arctic' by Jacqueline Grebmeier, given during the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop.

Dr. Jacqueline Grebmeier presents an overview of the arctic ocean ecosystem. She outlines the key environmental factors influencing arctic marine food webs and discusses recent changes in biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity, migration and range of species, and general ecosystem health in the region.

Dr. Jacqueline Grebmeier presents her research on recent changes in the biology of the Pacific arctic ecosystem at the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop.

This audio recording of bowhead whale calls was featured in a presentation by Stephen Okkonen at the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop in Barrow, Alaska.

This presentation, given by Robert Suydam, at the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop in Barrow, Alaska, is an overview of the resilience of the people of the North Slope with respect to their whaling history. The presentation showcases the history of both the science and traditional knowledge used in attempting to track whale population health and the ways in which