ANDRILL’s website provides a wide range of information and activities from simple interactives, photos and images, videos, interviews and blogs from the field, and hands-on inquiry activities developed by the ARISE teachers, to an explanation of the science of drilling for sediments and developing a paleoclimate record from the evidence found in the sediment core samples. This site includes information on ice sheets and ice shelves, drill rig technology. Educators’ journals from the field in Antarctica explain the science in words and photos for non-technical audiences and children. Teachers can sign up to receive polar science curriculum materials and e-mail updates and link to many other worthwhile websites. Activity: On ...

Several traverses across Antarctica are occurring this season, studying the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. They all have very informative and helpful web pages, as well as daily or weekly updates about their progress. Previous Expeditions: More information on previous International Antarctic Traverses can be found on the following pages: Summary of International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expeditions (ITASE) Previous scientific traverses across East Antarctica almost fifty years ago Current Expeditions: ...

Read about how Barrie Ford of Kuujjuaq, in Northern Canada, is spreading the word of IPY. Nunatsiaq News has the story: It could have been just called a northern office, but the idea was to have people in the North who would be concrete and visible, Ford said. Part of my job is to spread the word about IPY so people are more aware of it and know what is going on, and also to be a point of contact for scientists. Ford has spoken to schools in Nunavik, designed posters and contacted the region's mayors, where a growing awareness of climate change is sparking interest in IPY. ...

Vagabond is at Ny Ålesund since 1st September. France and I are preparing the third winter and are using the facilities of the AWIPEV Research Base. Varnishing, painting, servicing and various maintenance, cleaning, packing, sorting out, supplying of food... activities are many and varied on board! Between 2 jobs, we are exploring the surroundings with mountain bikes pulled by our dogs, paddling at sunset between drifting ice in the great King's Bay, watching the reindeers or polar foxes coming right into the village, talking - and sharing a drink - with scientists or technicians... a talk about our 2 first winters in Spitsbergen is planned here on 12 September, and we will also jump into the jacuzzi! ...

The IPY Youth Steering Committee (YSC) has set up a number of working groups in the runup to International Polar Year next year, and is looking for volunteers to join. Groups include the IPY Early Career Working Group, Polar Contests Working Group, Website Working Group, International Youth Conference on the Poles Working Group, Students on Ice Working Group and the International Geophysical Year Working Group (bringing together youth with those who worked on IGY 50 years ago.) More details on the IPY YSC web site. The mission of the YSC is to make sure youth is involved in all aspects of the Internat...

By Linda Mackey — Twenty-five Arctic Quest artists followed in the footsteps of great artists and explorers of the past, as they marked the 100th anniversary of Amundsen's 1906 navigation through the Northwest Passage with a journey of their own this summer. During a twelve day voyage aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the group Arctic Quest recorded their impressions on canvas, paper and film as they traveled up the east coast of Baffin Island, Greenland, and parts of the Northwest Passage, ending in Resolute. Every day brought new surprises including icebergs emerging from the fog, waking up to Orca whales, circling incredible icebergs, taking a zodiac ride to the base of the icefields in Illilisat, Greenland, or donating art supplies to Inuit children in the Arctic communi...

The European Polar Board and Swedish Research Council recently week hosted a workshop in Tarfala, northern Sweden, focussed on developing outreach and communication efforts in Europe. It was an amazing venue, set at a research station surrounded by glaciers. The group consisted of artists, writers, press and media, photographers, publicity professionals, museum curators, scientists and IPY national representatives. On a hike up to a glacier, I asked one new colleague, Luigi Folco from the Museo Nazionale...

IPY starts in March 2007, but not everybody is waiting until then to start celebrating the poles. L.A.-based artist Lita Albuquerque has just announced that she will be creating an installation piece on Antarctica in next month, Dec 22, 2006. The piece will be named "Stellar Axis: Antarctica" and is produced at the invitation of the US National Science Foundation's Artists and Writers Program. Lita's project already has an accompanying website, which in time will contain video and diary entries documenting the art installation process. You can also read the press release, and you can find out...

The International Polar Year 2007-2008, and a wide array of polar sciences, will have a strong presence during the Fall AGU Meetings in San Francisco in December 2006. More than ten oral and poster sessions carry the IPY label or the label of an IPY-endorsed project. More than 30 additonal sessions address polar themes, from ice core science to biogeochemistry of northern watersheds. The IPY IPO has assembled a list of all these polar sessions on a single sheet for your use; here it is, as a PDF. IPY IPO will also operate a display booth, cooperatively with the US NSF Office of Polar Programs. We will share many international materials promoting IPY and operate a polar message cen...

The Arctic ice shelf could completely melt during summer by 2080 because of global warming, according to scientists from the DAMOCLES programme. “If the situation evolves like physics predicts, the summertime Arctic shelf will completely disappear by 2080,” confirmed Eberhard Fahrbach of the Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. “This will have consequences above and beyond those in the Antarctic,” he added. For example, climate change not only threatens polar bears that live in these regions but the entire Arctic food chain. “This even has consequences for the fish that ultimately ends up on our tables,” said Fahrbach. DAMOCLES (Developing...