PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a program in which formal and informal educators spend 3-6 weeks participating in hands-on field research experiences in the polar regions. The goal of PolarTREC is to invigorate polar science education and understanding by bringing educators and polar researchers together.
Using photos from a variety of websites, including the PolarTREC and SCINI websites, students will identify organisms to phylum and/or class level (e.g. polychaetes, starfish, brittle stars, sponges) and then research the primary foods that these organisms eat. They will then develop a simple food web for these organisms.
Interview with Dr. Stacy Kim conducted by PolarTREC teacher Mindy Bell. This interview was conducted during the 2007 Antarctic Undersea ROV expedition.
Few people are familiar with the fascinating stories that Arctic and Antarctic explorers have to share. Students will research an explorer and create a dangling string with key information and highlights from the expedition(s) of that explorer.
Objective
To learn about polar explorers and polar expeditions.
Preparation
Gather needed materials. Have the explorers' information and photos
IPY marks the beginning of a sustained effort to understand large-scale environmental change in Earth's polar regions, which have major societal and economic impacts, and to advance new scientific frontiers, from the molecular to the planetary scale. NASA brings a unique perspective to IPY, which will focus on five themes: 1) NASA explores scientific frontiers in Earth's polar regions.; 2)
ALISON combines educational and scientific need by
1. supporting teacher professional development and student learning in the local context through the study of those abundant and familiar materials, snow and ice, that
2. creates scientifically valuable data that document the lake ice and conductive heat flow variability in Alaska, and which can be used for evaluating the performance of numerical
Learners from 6th – 12th grade will investigate different science projects in Antarctica through the PolarTREC and the USAP websites. They will then make a short PowerPoint (or similar) presentation to the rest of the class. Learners can work independently or in small groups.
Objective
Students will become familiar with the wide variety of science that occurs