APECS Webinars

Education and public outreach has become an increasingly necessary component of a scientific career whether in academia or in industry. This webinar gives an overview and examples of different types of education outreach that you can incorporate in your work as well as in research proposals for funding.

Recorded on 22 March 2011.

This video is part of an online lecture series coordinated by APECS, US NSF ARCSS Thermokarst Project, and the University of Canterbury to help early career polar researchers navigate their careers. For more information on the full series, visit apecs.is/webinars.

Presenter: Elena Sparrow, Education Outreach Director, International Arctic Research Center, and Research Professor, School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Dr. Elena Bautista Sparrow is a Research Professor of Soil Microbiology and Environmental Science in the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, and Director of Education Outreach at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. She is a member of the International Polar Year (IPY) Education Outreach and Communication Working Groups and is also the director of the University of the Arctic IPY Higher Education and Outreach Office. She directs other science education outreach programs such as the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Alaska Rural Research Partnership education outreach project, the Bonanza Creek Schoolyard Long Term Ecological Research Project, and the Alaska Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program. She works with elementary and secondary teachers and their students as well as with undergraduate and graduate students. Elena is the principal investigator of the IPY Monitoring Seasons Through Global Learning Communities, also called the GLOBE Seasons and Biomes project where pre-college teachers and students in Alaska and other states in the U.S. and other countries both polar and non-polar countries are involved. She co-leads the GK-12 Teaching Alaskans- Sharing Knowledge program. These science education programs engage pre-college students in scientific investigations to learn about science as well as to stimulate student interest in a postsecondary degree and a science career. Elena’s research interests are climate change effects on seasonal indicators such as plant and freshwater ice phenology, science education and environmental microbiology. Dr. Sparrow obtained the Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree cum laude from the University of the Philippines, a Master of Science degree in Soil Microbiology from Cornell University and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Agronomy from Colorado State University.