A simple Google search changed my life. I always knew I wanted to go to Antarctica, but getting the opportunity to visit the continent as part of a research team was something I never imagined. A year ago, I was looking for a way to become more involved and connected to the research science world.
I
Students will collect soil samples and analyze them with some of the same procedures used by researchers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Soil microfauna (e.g. nematodes) will be extracted from the samples using a Baermann funnel. Students will compare their own data to published data from researchers working in Antarctica.
PolarTREC has been an amazing experience, wow! The heart of the PolarTREC program is the field expedition, which allows the teacher to be embedded in a field research team. STEM educators are passionate about what they teach but often lack access to meaningful opportunities to participate in basic research. Programs like PolarTREC provide that missing
The students' task is to produce a brochure for both the Arctic and the Antarctic. These brochures will be used by the representatives of "Here We Go Travel" to advertise the virtues of traveling to both polar regions. The students will produce a 45 second radio spot that they will write and record as part of their overall
This activity was adapted from a TEA activity authored by:
* Sandra Kolb, Education Consultant, Poulsbo, Washington
* Kolene Krysl, Westside Community Schools, Omaha, Nebraska
* Larry Rose, Pleasanton Middle School, Pleasanton, California
* Wendy Slijk, La Costa Canyon High School, San Diego County, California
The original activity can be found at: http://tea.armadaproject.org/activity/kolb/tobesaltyseaiceornottobesaltyseaice_main.html
The Kuril Biocomplexity Project is a National Science Foundation-funded research project led by the University of Washington and being conducted by a team of American, Japanese and Russian scholars and students who are examining a 5000-year history of human-environmental interactions along the Kuril Island chain in the northwest Pacific Ocean. This is the link to the project website.
Students are presented with an actual series of tundra photos, which they use to develop a hypothesis for which sort of ground cover will have the most/least permafrost depth. Then they are given a set of actual data and use this to test their hypothesis
Objective
Students will:
* understand what permafrost is and how it develops