Polar Outreach Catalogue

In the fall of 2006, in anticipation to the education and outreach initiatives of IPY, two teachers from le Collge Jeanne Sauv (Winnipeg, MB Canada) collaborated with Schools on Board in a project that examined their grade 10 science curriculum to explore the links between classroom science education and polar climate change research. Meetings with teachers revealed areas in the science program where connections could be made between science concepts learned in the classrooms, and the same concepts being used in two scientific research program, one in the Arctic and another in the Antarctic. From September to December, these two teachers committed to including a polar theme to their science program. Scientists on board two very different vessels, the CCGS Amundsen in the Arctic and the Sedna IV in the Antarctic interacted by email with two grade 10 classrooms on a weekly basis, addressing questions linked to their science class, as well as questions related to life at sea. The email interactions were complemented by classroom visits by scientists from the Centre for Earth Observation Sciences (University of Manitoba). This project led to two IPY initiatives of the school: 1) sending a student on the 2008 International Schools on Board Field Program of the IPY-Circumpolar Flaw Lead system study, and 2) hosting their first Climate Change Expo. This poster describes the process used to connect these two classrooms to polar research and the lessons that were learned by both educators and Schools on Board on the bridges between science education and scientific research.