One of the responsibilities of a PolarTREC teacher is OUTREACH! At the orientation in Alaska, we were told how to plan to get the word out about the researchers and science we are working with and our exciting expeditions. Once the school year started and the dust settled in my classroom, I wrote a press release to send out about my deployment to Antarctica. My school district's Communication Director helped me tailor the press release to each recipient. She also had some great suggestions on who might be interested. We sent it to all of the standard recipients like local newspapers, radio and TV stations. She suggested a few unique ideas that I hadn't considered like the universities where I earned my degrees. She also made the press release available to a thriving online podcast community. So I took her advice and suggestions and gave her the go-ahead to send out the press release.
BOOM! I was not prepared for the response. Within just a few days I had several email requests from reporters. A day or two later I had appointments to be interviewed by WESA (our local PBS radio station) and The River's Edge Podcast. Then came a call from California University of Pennsylvania where I earned my Master's degree. Next was a call from the Pennsylvania Teacher's Union magazine. The most surprising was a response from Olentangy High School where I graduated from a very long time ago! I'll be featured on their social media! How cool is that?
The radio and podcast interviews were really fun. The WESA interview took place in my classroom but the Podcast took place in the River's Edge studios. It was really interesting to watch the engineering work and Brian the interviewer was easy to talk to.
Date
Expedition
Weather Summary
Hot and humid
Temperature
80˚ F
Wind Speed
Light winds from the West
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