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.
Students complete a physical puzzle based on a scientific poster about Bowhead Whales. Students then research the content of the poster and present their findings.
Objective
To familiarize students with:
* the scientific method
* real polar scientific posters
* real polar scientific research
* real polar scientific terminology
* real polar scientific technology
* real polar
Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles profiles one of its alumni, teacher Cristina Solis who also happens to be a PolarTREC alumnus. Read about her journey to become an educator and her participation in a PolarTREC study of microbial activity in thawing arctic permafrost near Barrow, Alaska.
In this article, PolarTREC teacher Elizabeth Eubanks recounts her experience bringing her students - three eighth-graders and two seventh-graders to a week-long research conference in Alaska. "Having my students present at an international professional science conference is above and beyond any experience that I can offer them as a science teacher".
PolarTREC teacher Elizabeth Eubanks traveled to the Alaska Marine Science Symposium with her students. They presented a poster about their experience as her students.
Students will conduct a soil study by investigating pH and water absorption.
Objectives
Students will learn:
* How to describe the composition of soil and explain how it forms.
* That soil is made up of tiny particles of rock, plant, and animal matter.
* How to determine whether a solution is acidic, basic, or neutral.
*
Students will investigate what a carbon footprint is and calculate their own personal carbon footprint. Finally, students will develop ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
Objectives
Students will know that the principles of chemistry underlie the functioning of biological systems.
Students will know that carbon, because of its ability to combine in many ways with
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