Preview of An Arctic Tale: The Word is Out. IPY has begun, and it's going to be big. The first summer season of four starts in earnest this month as researchers from around the world set off to the Arctic on ships, planes, small boats, and wheels. Canada, Russia, Alaska, Svalbard, Greenland, Scandinavia... hundreds of independent researchers heading North, at the same time, is powerful, full of potential. They will not only be inv...

Researchers and explorers will probe the Gakkel Ridge during expedition that begins on July 1. They will be using new robotic vehicles to hunt for life and hydrothermal vents on the Arctic seafloor. Researchers will use two new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs)--Puma and Jaguar--in tandem to locate hydrothermal vent sites on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. (Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) More information can be found on the project website. ...

Professional photographers with a portfolio of images from the Arctic and Antarctic. To use any of their images, please negotiate directly with the photographer. OUR POLAR HERITAGE / Christian Morel Our Polar Heritage photographic project is proposed by the photographer Christian Morel and the Association Polar Planet. The objective is to work during the 2 years of the IPY to a very large, international, transversal and multidisciplinary set of artistic and professional photographic pictures in the Arctic and the Antarctic. Our Polar Heritage aims to reveal the high precision of the work achieved by women and men under extreme conditions, to illustrate...

The following are IPY-related projects which teachers, classrooms, or students can become actively involved in. There are also numerous resources about the polar regions that can be used for teaching polar science. Several of these are listed on the IPY Education pages. Students on Ice Since 1999, Students on Ice (SOI) has been organizing educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for high school students between the ages of 14 to 19. In February 2009, we are launching our first U...

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center, the National Science Foundation, and the Marine Technology Society's (MTS) ROV Committee invite you to our 6th Annual International Student ROV Competition. Forty-one teams representing middle schools, high schools, home schools, after-school groups, community colleges, and universities from the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Scotland, Spain, and Iran are scheduled to compete in this year’s event, which is being held June 22-24, 2007 on the campus of Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In partnership with the International Polar Year (IPY), the 2007 competition highlights the science, history, and culture of our earth’s Polar Regions and the impact that these regions have on glob...

IPY project 455, IGLO, is a network of international science centres working together to raise awareness about IPY, the polar regions, and global warming. IGLO is an educational partner of Live Earth, the organization producing concerts in nine major cities around the world on July 7, 2007 to promote awareness of, and action on, global warming. Science centers and museums are participating in this event by screening films, showing the concert via a live satellite feed, hosting activities from the IGLO toolkit, and more. Science Centres in China (Shanghai), Panama, Belgium (Mechelen), The Netherlands (The Hague), Wales (Cardiff), Canada (Toronto), Mexico (Mexico City) and across the US (San Francisco, Fort Lauder...

Education, Outreach, and Communication (EOC) in IPY are a continuum of activities and ideas. As with the rest of IPY 2007-8, the EOC components build on local and regional activities and needs, and utilise existing networks and technologies, to raise awareness of the polar regions. To this end, a group of educators from around the world met together to discuss strategies and activities that could build on existing structures, and help to raise awareness of the polar regions using existing resources. The suggestions of the educators were then passed on to two groups: one focussing on the needs of young researchers and early career scientists, and the other on the international media. The idea was to identify and develop activities that would serve the broadest ...

Education, Outreach, and Communication (EOC) in IPY are a continuum of activities and ideas. As with the rest of IPY 2007-8, the EOC components build on local and regional activities and needs, and utilise existing networks and technologies, to raise awareness of the polar regions. To this end, a group of educators from around the world met together to discuss strategies and activities that could build on existing structures, and help to raise awareness of the polar regions using existing resources. The suggestions of the educators were then passed on to two groups: one focussing on the needs of young researchers and early career scientists, and the other on the international media. The idea was to identify and develop activities that would serve the broadest ...

From 1-14th July 2007, high-school students from across Australia and around the world will gather at The University of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia for the 34th International Science School (ISS), EcoScience – two weeks of scientific lectures, activities and social events with a focus on the environment and ecological science, and attention on IPY and the polar regions. On Thursday July 5th, 2007 at 7.00pm Sydney time, the ISS presents a unique opportunity for high-school students to participate in a global webcast discussing polar science. Students, teachers and interested observers attending this 45 minute event hosted in Sydney, both at the ISS and o...

The purpose of our study is to understand how Arctic predators respond to variations in oceanographic conditions. We will be studying Little Auks (Alle alle) at two sites, along the West coast of Spitsbergen and along the East coast of Greenland. We will be comparing the diets, foraging behavior and reproductive success at these two contrasting sites. The Greenland birds feed in cold Arctic water and the Spitsbergen birds feed in warmer water. We are collaborating with researchers from many different countries. We have a blog to decribe our activities which we will update during our expedition. The team at the Spitsbergen site is made up of undergradute students and Prof. Nina Karnovsky from Pomona College, CA. The team at the Greenland site is led by Ann Harding and will ha...