http://ipy.arcticportal.org/index.php?option=com_k2&id=1997&view=itemPress release: Kinnvika - Arctic warming and impact research - Change and variability of Arctic systems, with focus on Nordaustlandet, Svalbard Kinnvika is a project within the International Polar Year 2007–2008 that focuses on Arctic warming and impact research. Its a multinational and multidisciplinary initiative to enhance the understanding of the Arctic climate systems, to monitor environmental change due to global climate warming and to study effects of human activity in the Arctic. Kinnvika is also a logistic platform for scientists to manage research, with a base at the old Kinnvika station in Svalbard. There are 25 working packages in the project and the science involves several disciplines in the Earth Sciences including studies among others on ...

The February issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine is now available! Arctic and Antarctic Birds was co-produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This partnership allows us to bring you exciting and engaging ideas for incorporating birds into a life sciences unit. Do you want to know more about birds and their adaptations? This month's Science Content Knowledge article discusses some of the birds that live in or migrate to the polar regions and how birds stay warm in cold weather. Fol...

New York City will host its third International Polar Weekend at the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday and Sunday 2/7 and 2/8 from noon to 5PM each day. This family style event is a New York celebration of highlights from the International Polar Year (IPY). The weekend will include activities for all ages, including performances; short lectures; film clips with commentary; and an interactive Polar Fair with scientists, explorers, artists, and performers from Greenland, Norway, and Canada, as well as the United States. Event highlights include:

UNEP/GRID-Arendal, with financial support from the Research Council of Norway (Forskningsr

Draft documents for the IPY Education Working Group to edit, concerning development of the Polar Resource Book. If you have questions about this project, please contact Karen Edwards ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) ALL DOCUMENTS ARE DRAFT, please do not circulate unless within the Education Working Group, or with their consent. Promotion Resource Book Poster (low res) Contributions Did you develop or adopt a new polar science activity or program for your students or c...

It's less than two months before the first Hot Countdown of the REXUS 6 student rocket campaign. Here are some details about the NISSE payload: The NISSE payload description The REXUS 6 rocket campaign is approaching. Currently, the first Hot Countdown is scheduled to be on the 10th March, 2009. Vidar Hølland from the NISSE team has been the main responsible of the mechanical design and construction of the experiment payload together with rocket engineers in the University of Bergen, Norway. The payload is almost ready and some details are described below. ...

The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) report 'Observing the Arctic' is now ready for distribution. The presented conclusions have developed during a series of workshops involving 350 Arctic researchers, representatives of inter-governmental, national and subnational government agencies, representatives of indigenous peoples organizations, and residents of the Arctic. This process, referred to as the SAON-process, was initiated as a response to the request from Arctic Council ministers at their meeting in Salekhard, Russia in November 2006. The report was drafted by the SAON Initiating Group and is directed to organizations, agencies, governments, networks and programs involved in all aspects of Arctic observing. ...

Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing Innovations During the International Polar Year Guest Editors: Dr. Chris Derksen ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Dr. Paul Treitz ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) We invite contributed papers on the application of remote sensing to polar research. Papers are solicited from all application areas including the marine and terrestrial cryosphere, land cover and ecology, geology, education, outreach, and policy. Contributions from endorsed IPY projects are encouraged, but all submissions dealing with remote sensing of the polar regions will be considered. If you intend to submit a manuscript please contact either of the Guest Editors by email before 1 February 20...

An Italian Teacher's experience in Antarctica, by Graziano Scotto di Clemente. Italian Translation I am an Italian Science teacher. I am working in a lower secondary school (11-14 year old pupils), for the past 30 years, in Treviso, a town near Venice (North Italy). I am interested in science education, science history, and environmental activities.

 

 

An Italian Teacher's experience in Antarctica, by Graziano Scotto di Clemente.



Italian Translation

I am an Italian Science teacher. I am working in a lower secondary school (11-14 year old pupils), for the past 30 years, in Treviso, a town near Venice (North Italy). I am interested in science education, science history, and environmental activities. I participated in the ARISE – Andrill project during the 2007 October/December expedition in Antarctica (McMurdo Station).

ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) is a multinational collaboration comprised of more than 200 scientists, students, and educators from four nations (Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States) to recover stratigraphic records from the Antarctic margin.

The chief objective is to drill back in time to recover a history of paleoenvironmental changes that will guide our understanding of how fast, how large, and how frequent glacial and interglacial changes were in the Antarctic region. Future scenarios of global warming require guidance and constraint from past history that will reveal potential timing frequency and site of future changes.

ANDRILL has established an immersion experience for science educators (ARISE) to facilitate development of mechanisms and materials to effectively connect ANDRILL with the public.

During the 2007-2008 I planned on conducting a geology field trip and museum visits with his classes to observe and understand the geological evolution after the last Ice Period. I planed to use observations of everyday objects like refrigerators, air conditioners, petrol engines... to build intuitive links among entropy and energy, using software models to study the most important connections among the living beings in a habitat. I planed on doing creative science fiction writing with my class, as well as comic strips and drawings set in critical moments of prehistory or in the future, and presenting collected information and findings of the polar research through simple performances.

From Antarctica I worked with some Italian schools on the Polar topics, expecially geology to explain what the Andrill core told to the researchers.

For my pupils I prepared some materials on Antarctica, especially to suggest to them some reflections on the hypothetical influences of the climate changes.

An interesting didactic experience was organized by the Arise team in the McMurdo Station for the workers of the base.

This exibition was created by the group of teachers and scientists who are working in Mc Murdo Station to show and to explain to the other workers and people of the Antarctic base what the significance, the tecnology and the scientific topics of the Andrill project are. For the Arise group it could be a good test of our didactic ideas on a simple itinerary on polar science for pupils. The main challenge: to be able to explain and to show the net of knowledges, the collaborations between different disciplines to understand what happened in the past and what can happen in the future (other informations and photos in http://www.exhibitfiles.org/andrill ).

Some materials (in Italian) are on our school website: http://www.scuolastefanini.it (click on “Antartide” in the upper menu).

During this year in my school we are working on the CO₂ emissions and our carbon footprinters, comparing the “Human habitats” of the pupils of different schools: North Italy, Greece, Poland, Estonia, inside an European project that we have called “SMILe, Science and Mathematics Interactive Learning” (http://smile.kornelowka.com – in progress…).

An article written by Graziano on his experience can be downloaded in both English and Italian.

Content: 1. IPY after February 2009 2. Promoting your project in February, 2009 3. Polar Days 4. APECS 5. AGU Report Report no. 21, January 2009 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY after February 2009 Colleagues and friends regularly ask us what the "IPY plan" is for 2009 and 2010, and "What will happen to the IPO?". The answer for IPY varies by country and project. Some countries will hold closing events in February and March this year. Other national programmes will continue IPY research through Arctic 2009 and Antarctic 2009/2010 seasons and beyond, driven by financial and logist...