Polar Outreach Catalogue

The Planning Group for IPY 2007-08 laid out ambitious plans for public engagement in IPY. The IPY International Programme Office (IPO) and the Committee for Education, Outreach, and Communication (EOC) assessed the needs of, and developed programmes for, a wide range of communities including school teachers and students, science centres and museums, media officers and journalists, polar researchers, and the general public, as well as helped to support and stimulate a strong community of university students and early career polar researchers. All activities were planned around direct engagement by polar researchers, and particularly sought to enlist participation by students and early career scientists. We focused on activities and events that offered opportunities for national and local promotion and coordination. Our successes derived primarily from creative use of free technologies, from careful cultivation of a global community of enthusiastic volunteers, and from international collaboration and cooperation.