Columbus, Ohio …This year and next, middle school teachers have a unique opportunity to engage their students in one of the most massive scientific programs ever undertaken--the International Polar Year. Scientists from 60 countries are studying changes in the polar regions while many other groups are involved in educating the public via content-rich web sites, real-time broadcasts, and exhibits. How to make this complex undertaking accessible to students is the subject of Science and the Polar Regions, an online publication from the Middle School Portal of the National Science Digital Library. Mary LeFever, author of the publication, has identified more than three-dozen web-based resources for use in the middle school classroom. Among them are activities t...

Gallery SPOT features the painter Pierre Auzias, the photographer Martin Lehmann and the filmmaker Bertrand Lozay in the art installation: Slush! Artistic reflections on the increasing global temperature in Greenland Launching Saturday, March 1. From 2 - 5 pm. The exhibition runs to March 30, 2008. The exhibition operates in two levels, connecting both to the physical gallery space as well as to the social and psychological space of Greenland. By embracing a variety of different media and symbolic effects, the exhibition demonstrates current identity and environmental issues in Greenland. During the opening show Pierre Auzias is working in an interdisciplinary manner, creating a site specific installation. Auzias´...

PRESS RELEASE Alfred-Wegener-Institut for Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Institute for Polar and Marine Research Stratospheric ozone chemistry plays an important role for atmospheric airflow patterns Still too much uncertainty in today's climate models Interactions between the stratospheric ozone chemistry and atmospheric air flow lead to significant changes of airflow patterns from the ground up to the stratosphere. This is the result of climate simulations, which have just been published in the journal "Geophysical Research Letters" (Brand et al, Geophys. Res. Lett.). Scientists at the Research Unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, which is a member of th...

ITASE Synthesis Workshop Castine, Maine 2-5 Sept. 2008 Purpose: To integrate and synthesize research produced by ITASE (International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition) and associated scientific activities. Goals: To take Antarctica from the most sparsely sampled continent with respect to instrumental era climate to the best sampled for the last 200-1000 years, because of the extremely critical role that Antarctic climate change plays in global climate change (oceans, atmosphere, biological systems), and for the purpose of refining predictions of future climate change.To determine where and how Antarctic physical and chemical climate has or has ...

Submitted February 25: A Wirral, UK, school student is about to set out on the trip of a lifetime to the Canadian High Arctic, as part of an International Polar Year science programme. Emma Brown, a sixth-former at West Kirby Grammar School, will be joining a two-week international scientific expedition, which includes a week on board Canada's state-of-the-art research icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen. Emma won the chance to represent the UK on the expedition when she entered a competition run by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Liverpool. Her presentation on climate change in the Arctic and her enthusiasm in wanting to help communicate the issues greatly impressed the panel of judges. Emma said, 'I'm so excited about...

April 28-May 1, 2008 Houghton, Michigan USA This is the first announcement for the 2008 Workshop of the LASHIPA (Large-scale historical exploitation of Polar Areas) group. An international organization centered around the historical and archaeological study of industrialization in Polar Areas, the LASHIPA group has cooperated successfully on several seasons of research and teaching based in fieldwork on Svalbard (see www.lashipa.nl for details). LASHIPA members have garnered research funding from several national agencies and continue to pursue support for joint efforts during the next two years, at minimum. LASHIPA has been officially sanctioned as an IPY research activity, with explicit attention to international cooperation and...

In late December, Dr. Elena Sparrow of the UArctic IPY Higher Education and Outreach Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was pleased to help welcome Dr. Rhian Salmon, coordinator of education and outreach activities at the IPY International Programme Office in Cambridge, UK, as Rhian celebrated the new year with her first-ever trip to Alaska. Her two-and-a-half-week stay was filled with meetings, tours, and presentations, along with generous doses of Alaskan hospitality, as she became better acquainted with the IPY research and outreach activities in the state. Most of Rhian’s time was spent in Fairbanks, in Alaska’s interior. There she had numerous meetings and discussions with researchers, administrators and other staff at the University of Alaska Fairba...

Database: The Antarctic Master Directory (AMD) Link: http://www.usap-data.org/ IPY Benefit: Facilitate international collaboration by making it easier to find US data and submit records. Abstract: The AMD is a database of metadata records for research projects supported by the US Antarctic Program. Submission to it is mandatory for all NSF/OPP/ANT projects. The AMD uses NASA’s Global Climate Change Master Directory (GCMD) to house the records; but unfortunately the GCMD’s input and search capabilities are not user friendly for Antarctic work. Under this award, the Lamont group is developing a new portal that includes a map interface to find records. In terms of intellectual merit, this approa...

The International Polar Year is upon us and many of you are involved in this large scientific program. Many of you have wondered where you can get IPY merchandise for various meetings, workshops, outreach events. You can now order coffee mugs, magnets, pins, shirts, and much more. The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) has created an online store for IPY and APECS gear. All profits go towards supporting early career researchers and increasing polar literacy, administrated by the IPY International Programme Office. Show your support for the IPY, young researchers, and polar...

Kansas is proclaiming Tuesday, February 19 as Polar Education and Research Day. The governor of Kansas will sign a proclamation recognizing the importance of Polar Education and Research. The text is below. TO THE PEOPLE OF KANSAS, GREETINGS: WHEREAS, The world has banded together for the fourth time in history to jointly pursue science at the Earth's extreme latitudes as part of the International Polar Year; and WHEREAS, Kansans, since Lewis Lindsey Dyche in the late 1800s have participated in that scientific exploration, a rich tradition that extends to today's Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, headquartered at the University of Kansas; and WHEREAS, These engineering and scientific efforts can serve to excite yo...