This American Public Media Educate podcast features PolarTREC alumni, Melissa Lau. She talks about how her experiences in PolarTREC has influenced how she approaches teaching climate change in the classroom. Here's the link to the Education podcast:
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, funded by ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States) and the NSF (National Science Foundation), endeavors to connect educators and researchers in real field work experiences. Educators then take that experience back to their learners and community and share their experience in the form of lessons, lectures, and enhanced experiences in the classroom. As
This lesson was created by Rebecca Harris after being a part of the Arctic Glacial Lakes PolarTREC Expedition. She was inspired by how important suspended sediment, something so often overlooked by non scientists, was for developing paleoclimate models as well as ecosystems. Students will observe a watershed or a model of a watershed to make predictions about what might
PolarConnect event with teacher Melissa Lau and researchers Jeremy May and Matthew Simon discussing their research on Phenology and Vegetation Change in the Warming Arctic. This presentation was broadcast live from Toolik Field Station, Alaska on 20 June 2018.
In this activity, students will use IB-style data-based questions centered around graphs made from data collected about arctic ground squirrels by researchers at Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska. Activity levels of ground squirrels are analyzed in relation to solar radiation and ambient temperature. Students work individually or in pairs to answer the questions.
In this activity, students will use data collected about two male arctic ground squirrels by researchers at Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska. Each squirrel had a lightlogger to record light intensity (lux) and an implanted data logger to record internal body temperature (°C). Students work individually or in pairs to analyze the data sets and interpret the results
This lesson plan was created by after being a part of the Arctic Glacial Lakes PolarTREC Expedition. I was inspired by the massive amount of data collected over the course of the research project and the complexity of hydrology in glaciated and non-glaciated basins in the Brooks Range of Alaska. Students will work together to make hypotheses about patterns