Education

A key component of the IPY-ROAM (International Polar Year-Research and Educational Opportunities in Antarctica for Minorities) program is the Educational and Outreach portion. This group has been tasked with developing resources that will bring the field experiences of Antarctica to the classroom. The group's charter is twofold: providing tools for teachers and developing outreach products, such as a web-site to house the final products and create a portal for Antarctic education and IPY-ROAM resources.

The Education and Outreach group of the IPY program has developed products that can be useful to teachers, the scientific community and the larger community that has a desire to learn how students conduct scientific research in the Antarctic. These include lesson plans based on field research conducted on the group's trip to Antarctica ; an image bank and glossary; and videos of scientists conducting field research in Antarctica.

The overarching goal of the Education and Outreach group is to instill the idea of environmental stewardship and the impact of individuals on local and global issues. We seek to achieve this by creating field experiences that emulate those experienced by scientists in the IPY-ROAM program. Rooted in constructivist methods, lesson plans will be inquiry based allowing students to experience science as the scientists did in Antarctica . It is in the “doing” rather than the “seeing” of science that the group hopes to instill a love of science and a sense of responsibility toward scientific advancement.

Providing still photos, sound, and video will allow students to get as close to Antarctica as possible. General video will be provided on the IPY-ROAM website which teachers can use to show students the landscape and wildlife of Antarctica . This technological component serves a dual purpose as an avenue for outreach for IPY-ROAM. A website will house the data and provide a link to our research experiences for the community.

Group Members include:

• Dr. Bill Robertson
• Claudia V. Garcia
• Erik Erwin
• Ileana de Cardenas
• Marisa Negrete
• Sergio Rodriguez

Poster Presentations
Garcia et al. 2008. Bridging the gap between real world polar science and the classroom. UTEP SACNAS Student Research Expo. April 17th, 2008.