Polar Outreach Catalogue

The main objective of the IPY Field School was to provide an opportunity for students to become engaged in the 2007-2009 IPY, while learning new skills and fostering relationships with other young scientists. During the three week course held at the University Centre in Svalbard, students were exposed to a wide range of subjects - with particular emphasis to the polar environments - including Glaciology, Marine Biology, Terrestrial Biology, Permafrost, Oceanography, Climate Change and the Human Dimension. The IPY Field School was composed with a series of lectures, field excursions, and group projects that were either based on samples collected from field excursions or from newly available IPY data. The interdisciplinary nature of the IPY Field School provided the platform for a diverse group of students to discover how their discipline fits into the broader picture through experiential learning. The field school was a collaboration between the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), the University of the Arctic (UArctic), IPY Norway and the hosting institution The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). From 2010 - the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also supported the Field School economically.