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UAF to host international teacher training for IPY projects
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2007
Teachers from polar regions on both ends of the world will descend on Fairbanks this weekend to learn more about ways to integrate International Polar Year and polar themes into their classrooms. Thirty eight teachers from urban and rural Alaska, several northern U.S. states and countries including Canada, Greenland, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland and Argentina will attend the first IPY GLOBE Seasons and Biomes conference at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The teachers will be taking part in several IPY projects that will be happening around the world during IPY.
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GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is an international environmental science program (www.globe.gov) that brings together scientists, K-12 teachers and their students in monitoring the environment and studying the Earth. More than 100 countries participate in this program that was started in the US more than 10 years ago.
“The IPY GLOBE Seasons and Biomes project aims to increase students’ understanding of the Earth system by expanding the current GLOBE network by adapting current protocols to make them applicable to specific biomes, especially the tundra and taiga biomes during the time of the Fourth International Polar Year,” said Elena Sparrow, co-chair of the UA IPY education committee.
In addition to the educators, six student alumni of the project will be in attendance from Thailand, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Bahrain, Cameroon and the United States. These students are currently undergraduates at various universities who worked with the GLOBE program before entering college.
The conference will be held in IARC 501 on the UAF campus. As the building is locked during the weekend hours, press should call 474-5444 from the courtesy phone in the IARC entrance for access. On Saturday, the attendees will be visiting the Chena River boat launch behind Pioneer Park from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to study arctic ice and water.
For more information contact Jenn Wagaman, UAF Center for Research Services outreach coordinator, at (907) 474-5082 or jenn@alaska.edu or Martha Kopplin, education outreach assistant, at (907) 474-2794 or fnmrk@uaf.edu.
About IPY
The Fourth International Polar Year is a campaign of intense, internationally coordinated research to gain new knowledge about Earth's polar regions, how those regions are changing and how such changes are impacting the health of our biosphere. IPY is an opportunity to educate and excite the public and help train the next generation of scientists, leaders and educators.
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