PolarTREC educator Monica Nunez and researcher Dr. Craig Tweedie discuss the many projects that UTEP is involved in across the Barrow Peninsula. Collectively, these projects are helping to advance our knowledge of terrestrial, aquatic, coastal and marine ecosystem structure and function and how these systems are responding to arctic change. This event was broadcast live from a research boat outside
The PolarTREC expedition places the teacher in the role of student. All aspects of the expedition ask the teacher to stretch her mind and reach beyond her comfort zone. This stretch presents itself to the teacher in having to learn new technology, new science, new presentation formats, and meet, live and collaborate with
Teaching science gives me the satisfaction of sharing my passion for the natural world with others. I try to create opportunities for students to experience science outside of the classroom much like I did in college, through local field trips, or even identifying and mapping out the various large landscape rocks scattered around
Data collected from experimental manipulations of ecological processes can help us understand the natural world, and perhaps even help scientists predict how complex systems may change. At CiPEHR, (Carbon in Permafrost Heating Experimental Research) located near Denali National Park, scientists have collected and analyzed seven years of data to learn how increases in soil temperatures influence the carbon
Attached is a resource for lessons and simulations that involve studying the Greenhouse Effect and how it affects temperature readings on our planet. The simulations created by PHET are incredible. https://phet.colorado.edu/ Aside from the Greenhouse Effect simulation in this lesson, this site has a large variety of resources for any grade levels to be used as lessons, labs
This lesson is a modification of what Dave Hess and I, Stan Skotnicki, use in our Earth Science classes at Cheektowaga Central High School. It is an extension of our lesson on Celestial Motions as we track the apparent path of the sun across the sky at different latitudes. Prior to this Lab activity they would have already
PolarConnect Event with teacher Stan Skotnicki and researcher Mike Loranty with the Vegetation Changes in Permafrost project. This event was live from Northeast Scientific Station in Russia.
Researcher Elizabeth Webb discusses her experiences working in the field with a PolarTREC teacher. She worked with John Wood in 2011 and 2012, and Tom Lane in 2013, on the Carbon Balance in Warming and Drying Tundra expedition near Healy, Alaska. (She primarily discusses her time with John Wood since this interview was taken in 2013, before Tom Lane's expedition.)
Newspaper article in the City & Region section of the Buffalo News highlighting Stan Skotnicki's trip to Siberia this summer as a middle school teacher through the PolarTREC program.