ACRF Education and Outreach Efforts Support IPY
Education and outreach are integral to the International Polar Year (IPY). In collaboration with several other agencies, the Education and Outreach Program for the ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) is working to promote awareness of the IPY and climate research on the North Slope of Alaska. Specifically, the ACRF is sponsoring two teachers from Barrow, Alaska, to attend the 2007 National Science Teachers' Association national conference in St. Louis. It is also contributing original footage of interviews with Alaskan native peoples to support IPY multimedia outreach efforts. As outreach coordinators strive to incorporate traditional knowledge of climate change into their educational programs this IPY, many of the resources previously developed by the ACRF for the community of Barrow are being utilized. See also the Climate Education Update, January 2007, for more IPY news and a lesson plan on melting icebergs vs. glaciers.
Educational Kiosk CD Available at No Cost—Request Yours Today!
In 2003, ACRF developed a computer-based, interactive kiosk integrating ARM science with traditional ecological knowledge from the community of Barrow, Alaska. The kiosk includes interviews with ARM scientists to provide users with basic climate change information, as well as interviews with elders and community leaders to discuss the local impacts of climate change on all aspects of village life. The kiosk, entitled Climate Change: Science and Traditional Knowledge, is on permanent display at the Iñupiat Heritage Center in Barrow. More information about the kiosk can be found on the http://education.arm.gov/outreach/kiosks.stm.
The multimedia kiosk information is available on disk for use by teachers and students everywhere, for use in classrooms, libraries, or on personal computers. As a free educational resource, the kiosk is an excellent building block for interdisciplinary learning about climate change in the Arctic. To request a copy of the kiosk on disk, contact the Education and Outreach office at armeducation@lanl.gov.
POLAR-PALOOZA: Climate science goes on tour!
With funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), POLAR-PALOOZA is launching a national tour in Fall 2007 entitled "Stories from a Changing Planet." A team of six polar experts, including an Alaskan native, will travel to science centers across America for a dynamic presentation of IPY and ongoing research in the Arctic and Antarctic. ACRF Education and Outreach has been invited by POLAR-PALOOZA to showcase the Climate Change: Science and Traditional Knowledge kiosk at host science centers and museums before and after the POLAR-PALOOZA presentations.
In addition to the national tour, POLAR-PALOOZA is developing several high-definition videos which will be distributed via the NSF and NASA websites, but also via iTunes, Google Video, and other popular portals. To help build the traditional knowledge perspectives in all these multimedia resources, ACRF Education and Outreach is contributing footage from the ARM kiosk to the POLAR-PALOOZA project. Kiosk interviews with elders, whale hunters, students and educators from Barrow discussing their observations of climate change on the North Slope will be featured along with animations of science concepts and interviews with ARM scientists. Several lesson plans and classroom activities written by Education and Outreach staff will also be adapted for use during POLAR-PALOOZA K-12 workshops. To learn more about POLAR-PALOOZA, go to http://passporttoknowledge.com/polar-palooza/pp01.php.
Partnership Extends Support for National Science Teacher Conference
The IPY will be a focal point at many conferences and workshops around the world for the next two years, including the National Science Teachers' Association (NSTA) national conference in Saint Louis in March 2007. Several workshops and symposia at the conference will focus on polar climate with presentations from leading educators from research agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and NSF. ACRF Education and Outreach—partnering with the North Slope Borough School District (NSBSD)—will sponsor two teachers from Barrow, Alaska, to attend the national conference. In addition, ACRF Education and Outreach is working with NSBSD to also provide climate-related web seminars from the NSTA conference for educators teaching in schools around Barrow. A list of climate-related symposia to be presented at the NSTA conference can be found at http://institute.nsta.org/symposia.asp.
Teacher's Domain Combines Culture and Climate
In January 2007, the Education and Outreach Program for ACRF worked with WGBH Boston—public television's pre-eminent production house—to incorporate traditional knowledge perspectives of climate change in the Arctic into their Learning from the People series on the Teachers' Domain Digital Library. In collaboration with the Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO), WGBH produced the special collection to provide rich, multi-disciplinary resources in science, literacy and language arts, fine art, and social studies. One segment of the Learning from the People collection focuses on climate change in the Arctic (http://www.teachersdomain.org/exhibits/echo07-ex/index.html). ACRF Education and Outreach contributed several interviews from the Climate Change: Science and Traditional Knowledge kiosk; the information can now be accessed by educators around the world on the Teachers' Domain website.
In establishing a partnership with WGBH, ACRF Education and Outreach has an additional venue for providing its educational resources to educators beyond ARM's host communities via Teachers' Domain. This mission-driven digital service is designed to harness the broadcast, interactive, and educational programming resources of public television and its institutional partners to support standards-based teaching and learning. Teachers' Domain receives funding and major support from the National Science Foundation's National Science Digital Library.
