PolarTREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating: Bringing Polar Research to the Classroom

PolarTREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating is a three-year (2007-2009) teacher professional development program that pairs K-12 teachers with researchers to improve science education through authentic polar research experience. PolarTREC builds on the strengths of the existing TREC program in the Arctic, an NSF supported program managed by the Arctic Research Consortium of the US (ARCUS), to embrace a wider range of research activities in the Arctic and Antarctic. PolarTREC uses a Teacher Research Experience (TRE) model to foster the integration of research and education to produce a legacy of long-term teacher-researcher collaborations, improved teacher content knowledge through experiences in scientific inquiry, and broad public interest and engagement in polar science. PolarTREC will enable thirty-six teachers to spend two to six weeks in the Arctic or Antarctic, working closely with researchers investigating a wide range of topics such as sea-ice dynamics, terrestrial ecology, marine biology, atmospheric chemistry, and long-term climate change. With the help of their host researcher and the research team, teachers will develop the experience and tools necessary to teach science through scientific inquiry and investigation based on real-world experiences. While in the field, teachers and researchers will communicate extensively with their colleagues, communities, and hundreds of students of all ages across the globe, using a variety of tools including satellite phones, online journals, podcasts and interactive "Live from IPY" calls and web-based seminars. The online outreach elements of the project convey these experiences to a broad audience far beyond the classrooms of the PolarTREC teachers. In addition to field research experiences, PolarTREC will support teacher professional development and a sustained community of teachers, scientists, and the public through workshops, Internet seminars, an e-mail listserve, and ongoing teacher/researcher networks. For further information on PolarTREC, contact Wendy Warnick, ARCUS Executive Director at warnick@arcus.org or 907-474-1600. The PolarTREC website will be accessible in 2007 through the ARCUS web site at www.arcus.org.