Never, in my 27 year career as a teacher, have I had so many students so interested and enthusiastic in so many broad and varied topics that they would have immediately dismissed as “boring” had I not participated in PolarTREC. I was happily mystified by the curiosity of the students and the depth of their interest in
A little over 1 year ago, I received a phone call that changed my life. I had been selected to become a PolarTREC Teacher and would be heading to Antarctica in the fall of 2017. Words cannot adequately describe the joy and excitement I had in that moment. I knew I was headed for
Students will observe how soils and rocks of different densities behave in wind and in water. They will make predictions and careful observations as they learn about sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
Students experiment with a “blubber glove” to experience how insulation affects heat transfer, and how the adaptation of blubber helps penguins as well as seals, whales and walruses survive in bitterly cold waters.
The Solar Oven Science activity was developed as a way to target conservation of energy. Some students understand that he sun can be used for heating and cooking but they mistakenly think that this can only work in deserts. Because of conservation of energy solar cooking and heating can work in temperate and even arctic environments. The linked
This activity is a way to create a cloud chamber in the classroom. A cloud chamber allows students to view "invisible" alpha particles emitted through nuclear decay. Alpha particles have a long history in nuclear physics--they are a helium nucleus and their emission during nuclear decay was one of the first ways we knew that atomic nuclei could