International Polar Year Draws on ARM Education and Outreach Efforts

 
Published: 28 February 2007

International Polar Year (IPY) kicks off on March 1, and education and outreach efforts are an integral part of the international activities. In collaboration with several other agencies, ARM Education and Outreach staff are working to promote awareness of the IPY and climate research on the North Slope of Alaska. Many of the resources developed previously by ARM Education and Outreach are being utilized in several of these efforts as IPY outreach coordinators strive to incorporate traditional knowledge of climate change into their educational programs.

Community members check out the interactive climate kiosk at its permanent home in the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska.

In 2003, ARM Education and Outreach worked closely with the community of Barrow to develop an interactive kiosk rich with native perspectives about climate change on the North Slope; this kiosk has been a point of interest for others who want to do the same. ARM Education and Outreach is contributing footage from the Barrow kiosk to help build the traditional knowledge perspectives in the various multimedia resources associated with POLAR-PALOOZA. This IPY collaboration, sponsored by NASA and NOAA, features a national tour and video broadcasts. Several lesson plans and classroom activities written by the ARM Education and Outreach Program will also be adapted for use during POLAR-PALOOZA K-12 workshops. Footage from the Barrow kiosk was also provided to WGBH Boston, public television’s pre-eminent production house, to incorporate traditional knowledge perspectives of Arctic climate change into their Learning from the People series. This special collection is available on the Teachers’ Domain Digital Library for access by educators around the world.

In addition, the IPY will be a focal point at many conferences and workshops around the world for the next two years. Several workshops and symposia at the National Science Teachers’ Association (NSTA) national conference in March will focus on polar climate, with presentations from leading educators and research agencies. ARM Education and Outreach is partnering with the North Slope Borough School District in sponsoring two teachers from Barrow, Alaska, to attend the national conference in Saint Louis. They are working together to provide climate-related web seminars from the NSTA conference to educators in schools around Barrow. More information on all these activities can be found on the web pages describing ARM contributions to IPY.