Article in Polar Record written by ARCUS staff and PolarTREC alumni educators that shares impacts of participating in a Teacher Research Experience.
Abstract: PolarTREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (PolarTREC) has provided the opportunity for over 160 K-12 teachers and informal science educators from the USA to work directly with scientists in the Arctic and the Antarctic. As a Teacher
Abstract
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines have become key focus areas in the education community of the United States. Newly adopted across the nation, Next Generation Science Standards require that educators embrace innovative approaches to teaching. Transforming classrooms to actively engage students through a combination of knowledge and practice develops conceptual understanding and application skills. The partnerships between
Researcher Egbert Schwartz and PolarTREC teacher Justin Kendhammer will travel to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica in search of life in the seemingly barren soil. One of the questions they will attempt to answer is whether microbes in the soil are native to Antarctic soil or whether they have been blown onto the continent from elsewhere in the world.
This lesson was written for the 2012 Arctic Ocean Ecosystem Workshop and was inspired by the research work conducted off the coast of Barrow, Alaska by researchers Steve Okonnen and Patricia Yager with PolarTREC teachers Lollie Garay and Chantelle Rose. Students will engage in a series of exercises to investigate seasonal change in the Arctic ecosystem based on authentic
An article describing Kevin Anchukaitis' work at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. Tree rings embody a record of climate change going back thousands of years, and they grow on every continent except Antarctica. “They let us reconstruct climate around the world, in both space and time."
Humans are creative. They try to solve problems in original ways. For example, some scientists are thinking of ways to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases in the air. Other scientists are thinking of ways to limit the amount of sun that reaches Earth so that the Earth won’t get so warm. Like most ideas, there are pros (good
Textbooks say that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and can make earth's climate hotter. Try this lab to see if carbon dioxide gas can really act like a greenhouse.
Objectives
Students should be able to make a hypothesis, perform an experiment, analyze data and write a conclusion based on the evidence from their experiment.
Studying physics and applied mathematics as a girl is not common. What made you select this course of study?
I like to find out how things work. I believe physics is the basic science to all scientific work. It helps to really understand things in biology and other areas. When an employer sees a degree in physics they know you
Article describing PolarTREC teacher Susy Ellison's recent expeditions to Alaska to take part in a tree ring study in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and an archaeological expedition in Kivalina.