We are all teachers and students throughout our lives – even as adults we are students and even as children we are teachers. As adults, we are often afforded unusual opportunities to learn as we push ourselves in our interests and abilities. Through these opportunities—both expected and unexpected—our own understanding of what is possible expands as well as our desire
In a “March Madness” game of survival of the fittest, will your microbe and its genes survive the test of changing conditions on Planet Earth and beyond? Students choose genes from a “toolbox” and pit their microbe against their classmates’, using critical thinking and argument writing to determine the microbe with the best chance of success. Based on PolarTREC
Teacher David Thesenga and the Ice Shelf Flow and Fracture Dynamics Research Team discuss field work on the McMurdo Shear Zone (SZ) live from Antarctica.
The Follow A Researcher (FAR) website from the University of Maine will be releasing weekly videos starting the first week of October closely following the Ice Shelf Flow and Fracture Dynamics Expedition in Antarctica.
PolarTREC alumna Susy Ellison talks about her two expeditions and how they affected her personally and professionally. Researcher Jeff Rasic joins in to talk about what it was like to have a teacher in the field for the Early Human Settlement in Arctic Alaska 2011 expedition.
This one hour webinar is a great look at the PolarTREC 2014-5 Antarctic expeditions. Each teacher presents on the research projects, implementation in the classroom, and outreach into communities.
Analogs are used in science investigations to better understand systems we can’t access ourselves. In this lesson, students explore the Dry Valleys of Antarctica to better understand microbial communities on early Earth and what might have been possible on ancient Mars. Students will examine photographs, written descriptions, and artistic renderings of early Earth, the Dry Valley lakes, and
The report is written by teacher participants upon return from their field expedition portion of the PolarTREC program. It summarizes the benefit of the expedition to the teacher, a description of activities, and a summary of how teachers plan to link this experience in classrooms and communities. This is a public document that will be posted in teacher portfolios and
This lesson/project/lab has students predict via multiple drawings and time lapse photography predictive Flubber flow before the placement of barriers and other obstacles in front of the Flubber. Contour lines in two directions are drawn on both the paper prediction and the Flubber for comparison purposes.
Following predictive drawing completion glacier flow (Flubber flow), with obstacles in place
Ground penetrating radar is an important tool for studying glacier dynamics. Glacier scientists use GPR images to analyze attributes of glaciers. The following research activity will familiarize students with the basics of the different types of glaciers and their dynamics along with ground penetrating radar and its use in glacier studies.