HR: 0830h
AN: ED21B-1208    [PDF]
TI: Exploring Science Through Polar Exploration
AU: * Pfirman, S L
EM: spfirman@barnard.columbia.edu
AF: Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
AU: Bell, R E
EM: robinb@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Torrey Cliff, Palisades, NY 10964
AU: Zadoff, L
EM: lbz13@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning, 204 Butler Library, Columbia University 535 West 114th Street, Mail Code 1130, New York, NY 10027
AU: Kelsey, R
EM: ryan@columbia.edu
AF: Columbia Center for New Media Teaching & Learning, 204 Butler Library, Columbia University 535 West 114th Street, Mail Code 1130, New York, NY 10027
AB: Exploring the Poles is a First Year Seminar course taught at Barnard College, Columbia University. First Year Seminars are required of incoming students and are designed to encourage critical analysis in a small class setting with focused discussion. The class links historical polar exploration with current research in order to: introduce non-scientists to the value of environmental science through polar literature; discuss issues related to venturing into the unknown that are of relevance to any discipline: self-reliance, leadership, preparation, decisions under uncertainty; show students the human face of science; change attitudes about science and scientists; use data to engage students in exploring/understanding the environment and help them learn to draw conclusions from data; integrate research and education. These goals are met by bringing analysis of early exploration efforts together with a modern understanding of the polar environment. To date to class has followed the efforts of Nansen in the Fram, Scott and Amundsen in their race to the pole, and Shackleton's Endurance. As students read turn-of-the-century expedition journals, expedition progress is progressively revealed on an interactive map showing the environmental context. To bring the exploration process to life, students are assigned to expedition teams for specific years and the fates of the student "expeditions" are based on their own decisions. For example, in the Arctic, they navigate coastal sea ice and become frozen into the ice north of Siberia, re-creating Nansen's polar drift. Fates of the teams varied tremendously: some safely emerged at Fram Strait in 4 years, while others nearly became hopelessly lost in the Beaufort Gyre. Students thus learn about variability in the current polar environment through first hand experience, enabling them to appreciate the experiences, decisions, and, in some cases, the luck, of polar explorers. Evaluation by the Columbia Center for New Media, Teaching and Learning shows that combining historical texts with current data/simulations is an extremely powerful way of engaging non-scientists in science, and explaining the role of science and the environment in decision-making.
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
DE: 5416 Glaciation
DE: 5462 Polar regions
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting