Polar Outreach Catalogue

This project explored polar science through an innovative approach to science, art and literacy education. The project ran in 2008/9 and involved middle school students from two continents, Australia and North America, collaborating in polar research, narrative development and classroom experimentation. The project involved students working together (12 paired classes across the hemispheres) to write and illustrate on-line e-books in a mystery genre focused around polar science. Students were guided by classroom teachers trained in the project methodology and polar sciences, postgraduate Antarctic science researchers and resources of science organisations such as the Australian Antarctic Division, the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery and the Universities of Alaska and Tasmania. . Students gained skills in measuring environmental parameters, undertaking scientific methodologies, communication and self motivated exploration of polar science themes. Over 600 students, 24 classroom teachers and a dozen researchers participated in the project making it a truly international polar year event with reverberations well beyond the classroom encompassing communities, the media and new generations of polar researchers. Whilst the primary aim was science education, the project had significant motivational and literacy outcomes with research providing strong evidence that the processes involved were highly effective in engaging and developing students? polar literacy and wider skills.