HR: 16:55h
AN: ED14A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Bringing Polar Research to the Classroom
AU: * Stevenoski, S
EM: Steve.Stevenoski@wrps.org
AF: Lincoln High School, 1801 16th Street South, Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54494 United States
AU: Lawver, L A
EM: lawver@ig.utexas.edu
AF: Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, 4412 Spicewood Springs Road #600, Austin, TX 78759-8500 United States
AU: Wilson, T J
EM: twilso@mps.ohio-state.edu
AF: Dept. of Geological Sciences Ohio State University, 125 S. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210 United States
AB: Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic (TEAA) was a professional development opportunity for teachers funded through the National Science Foundation. A TEAA teacher worked closely with scientists, participated in cutting-edge research, and was immersed in the process of science. The TEAA teacher experience enhances professional development and enabled teachers to increase content knowledge, enhance teaching skills, transfer the research experience to the classroom, assume leadership roles, and collaborate with a network of researchers and education colleagues. A primary goal of the TEAA program was to establish a growing, collaborative Polar Learning Community of teachers, students, administrators, researchers, and the broader community to build on the research experience. One example of how this collaboration was through work with researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. In 1995 and 2004, two geophysical research cruises in Antarctica included the same TEAA. During the 2004 cruise, bathymetric data were collected that found some unique seafloor features of an unknown origin. Of particular interest was a cluster of 5 km in diameter, circular structures that may be glacial remnants. Given the uniqueness of these features, an opportunity has been created for students to actively investigate and research the data, and to describe these features. The data will be made available to high schools and middle schools in digital form that the students can use. The bathymetric charts of the seafloor show location, length and depths of the features. The goal of this collaboration is to develop an inquiry based science activity that uses real data as a focus for students to develop their own hypotheses for the origin of these unique formations. Students in Wisconsin will make field trips to actual glacial drumlins and compare their field measurements to those collected during the cruise. Teachers, students, and scientists will work together to explain the origin of the Antarctic features using their local data as a basis for comparison. Students and teachers will be encouraged to share their conclusions with one another and with the scientists. This is intended to be a long-term project initiated in the fall of 2004 and will be provided to the educational community prior to the start of the International Polar Year (2007).
DE: 9310 Antarctica
DE: 8109 Continental tectonics--extensional (0905)
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 3022 Marine sediments--processes and transport
DE: 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (1824, 1886)
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting