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 mini exhibit explores the science behind climate change and introduces current climate change research to the public. Panels cover the topics of changing climate, ocean acidification and sea level rise, giving examples of how data is collected and current research in these fields. The exhibit also provides websites for further exploring climate change impacts.
Oceanography is the study of the ocean. It covers a wide range of topics from marine life to the geology of the sea floor to the physical properties of the ocean. Physical oceanographers study the physical components of the ocean including light, waves, tides, currents and the composition of sea water. The physical properties of the ocean can
PolarTREC teacher Elizabeth Eubanks traveled to the Alaska Marine Science Symposium with her students. They presented a poster about their experience as her students.
Teacher Elizabeth Eubanks recently returned from a research trip to Costa Rica along with Steve Oberbauer, a professor of biological sciences at Florida International University. In 2008, they had traveled to Barrow, Alaska to study the role of global warming on Arctic ecosystems as part of a PolarTREC exition. In Dr. Oberbauer's words, "Elizabeth was so good in Alaska, I
This article and associated video describe the findings of researchers who undertook core drilling at Lake El’gygytgyn, a lake that sits today inside a basin formed by a meteorite that struck the earth 3.6 million years ago. An associated video allows us to hear the enthusiasm and details as researcher Julie Brigham-Grette describes the findings of this remarkable discovery.
Lake El'gygytgyn (67.5º N, 172º E) is one of the best preserved large asteroid impact craters on earth. In the winter of 2009, I joined an international science team and traveled to the frozen arctic lake to drill and extract lake sediments to study climate change as well as sample the rocks that were changed when the crater
The sediment in Lake El'gygytgyn, (pronounced EL-ge-GIT-gin) located in NE Siberia, holds one of the longest records of climate change anywhere in the continental Arctic. How does sediment (clay and mud) tell us something about past climate? Proxy data! By studying the microfossils of diatoms and pollen in the sediment, we can re-construct the lake environment millions of