The Arctic Ocean Curriculum Unit was created by the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States with funding from the North Pacific Research Board. This project aimed to update and revise existing Arctic Ocean-related lesson plans originally created by PolarTREC program teacher alumni. The format used lends itself to the changes in education - providing student-facing slide decks that allow
TEK TALKS is a series of webinars that was developed to foster understanding among scientists in regard to working with Indigenous People. View archived lectures and/or sign up for future lectures through the website.
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:
Scientists in Siberia are seeing trends of more severe and widespread wildfires. By observing and measuring larch forests, they are trying to understand how the forests are changing. What do these trees need to survive? Are they getting what they need? Students will plant lodgepole pine seeds providing some with all the necessary components for survival and others missing
Scientists in Siberia are seeing trends of more severe and widespread wildfires. Larch seeds are dispersed by wind. Experimentation is currently underway to determine distances larch seeds can disperse from viable, mature larch trees. Students will explore how various types of seeds are dispersed to get what they need to survive.
Timeframe: 90 minutes
Grade: K-2
Students will learn to:
* Observe and record weather patterns
* Process data by creating graphs/charts
* Compare actual weather data from the Siberian Arctic to local weather patterns, draw conclusions and make future predictions concerning weather patterns.
Big Idea
Why do people need to track weather over time?
Lesson Preparation
You will need a thermometer, tracking calendar, and
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.
We are really looking forward to the 2020-2021 field season for the PolarTREC teams!
This space is dedicated to information about the upcoming PolarTREC Orientation that is required for the educators that were selected for 2020. It's also a space for those that are interested and/or joining the Orientation to learn more about the logistics related to the training.
If
A working group was convened in late May, 2019, for the purpose of developing guidance to North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) and Alaska Sea Grant (ASG) to encourage and support outreach by researchers to Alaska’s K-12 Indigenous students in culturally responsive ways. The impetus for the working group was a disconnect we perceived between an increasing emphasis on inclusion of