Melissa Lau spent a month in the tundra ecosystem gathering data using a device called a Greenseeker. This device measures exactly how green a plant is by calculating its NDVI or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. In this lesson, students will explore light waves, how they interact with plants, and find out how green is green.
PolarTREC teacher Jillian Worssam was one of a handful of teachers singled out by the Rodel Foundation of Arizona as an exemplary teacher. This article gives a sneak peak into Ms. Worssam's very hands-on, field-based classroom and how she connects with her middle school students.
Antarctic educator, Mark Walsh, created this video for the PolarTREC 2013 spring online professional development course. This video uses the concept of Density to explore how mountains are built as well as how to throw a good Cinco de Mayo party at McMurdo Station Antarctica. He uses the Dr. Samantha Hansen's Transantarctic Mountains work as an example of mountain building.
Students will use the TAMMNET project and accompanying PolarTREC resources to learn about seismology in the Antarctic, culminating in the creation of an annotated map using google maps.
Objective:
Students will understand the different ways mountain ranges are formed, and appreciate the questions unanswered about the Transantarctic Mountains. Students will also appreciate the ingenuity required for doing research in
Students will develop an understanding of what it takes to interview scientists, and take the corresponding data and reformat it into an electronic medium.
Objective
Students will be able to write questions to scientists in the field, interview, take the data collected, and convert to an electronic format including MP3 clips and post to the Internet.