Kathy Gorski's List: Polar Science Curriculum Resources

Not a curriculum, or a resource page in the same sense as other sites in the curriculum category; the NOAA Climate Program Office provides a document about climate literacy. It can be accessed here. This document, developed with Standards and Benchmarks in mind, will enable teachers to meet their curriculum needs while incorporating climate and polar studies in their teaching plans.

Teachers’ Guide to High Quality Educational Materials on Climate Change and Global Warming. Even though the page copyright is old, the resources are still outstanding. The ‘Top Ten’ list is still tops.

This site is notable because it is one of the few that offers (excellent) discipline specific resources as well as grade filtered. Many of the lessons are directly related to polar science.

Although this site is not itself an advocacy site, it links to many of the ‘more respectable’ ones.

Windows to the Universe. Excellent resources, many of which were featured in the Winter 2008 issue of The Earth Scientist (National Earth Science Teachers Association). This issue was dedicated to polar studies and IPY. Select ‘Polar Regions’ in the left sidebar menu.

GLOBE is not directly a polar resource, but its vision and mission make it an indirect route to the study of the poles, and certainly, it's emphasis on climate has increased.

Go North! follows a dog sledding team across the arctic. It is a full curriculum unit (reading any Jack London in Language Arts class?)

The resources on this EPA website include glossaries, background, videos, case studies and more. All materials have been vetted by scientists and educators.

This site and document will help educators integrate the polar regions into their curricula. From the site: "The Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI), funded by the National Science Foundation, has gathered and codified the underlying understandings of Earth sciences into a succinct document that will have broad-reaching applications in both public and private arenas. It establishes the “Big Ideas” and supporting concepts that all Americans should know about Earth sciences. The resulting Earth Science Literacy framework will also become part of the foundation, along with similar documents from the Oceans, Atmospheres and Climate communities, of a larger geoscience Earth Systems Literacy effort."

This is an excellent article with great advice for *anyone* who is presenting a poster *anywhere.* It should be mandatory reading from late middle school on up!

"In the lesson plan, the class does the work of a team of paleontologists studying a time of rapid global warming 55 million years ago. By examining fossils of leaves from various tree species, and by incorporating the findings into a mathematical formula, the students are able to tell average annual temperatures during this prehistoric time. "

"Integrating federal research and solutions for climate and global change"

This links to the Educators' page, but there is much more to this site especially for incorporation with history and/or policy discussions.

From the introduction: "This guide powerfully details many of the biases and barriers to scientific communication and information processing. It offers a tool—in combination with rigorous science, innovative engineering, and effective policy design—to help our societies take the pivotal actions needed to respond with urgency and accuracy to one of the greatest challenges ever faced by humanity: global-scale, human-induced environmental threats, of which the most complex and far reaching is climate change.”

"a complete listing of the articles in "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic," a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming. There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by:

* Stages of Denial,
* Scientific Topics,
* Types of Argument, and
* Levels of Sophistication. "

"Global warming has been a topic of concern and much controversy for many years. Whatever the disagreements have been in the past, most scientists and policy makers now recognize that if the Earth’s surface temperatures continue to rise as much as they have in the past decade or so, then many parts of the world could face dire consequences, including food and water shortages, coastal flooding, and health consequences.

Based on the Koshland Science Museum’s exhibit Global Warming: Facts and Our Future, the following webquest will allow students to learn firsthand how society and environment might be impacted by global warming and how to help people make better decisions regarding all the complicated issues surrounding climate change, energy use, and available policy options. Students will take on the role of scientist, business leader, or policy maker and be part of a climate action team, which will make some of the same discoveries and decisions that are made in the “real world” every day. "

Webquest to accompany Glencoe's "Earth Science: Geology, the Environment, and the Universe"
Unit 7: Resources and the Environment

"The Warming of the Earth
A beginner's guide to understanding the issue of global warming"
although some info is dated, this is still an excellent resource.

Mirror Site of this Diigo Group

"The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) is the first-ever true-color high-resolution satellite view of the Antarctic continent enabling everyone to see Antarctica as it appears in real life. The primary purpose of this site is to provide materials that will allow for both students and educators to explore the continent through the "Antarctic Mysteries" section.

This web site is designed as part of the International Polar Year to familiarize people with Antarctica, to explore the richness of its features, to learn about why Antarctica matters to us all, and to explain and demonstrate how scientists use satellite imagery to study the continent.

This site is a two-year project. We plan to periodically add content. Your feedback is sought to help us in improving the site. Please offer your suggestions. Thank you."

"These explorations were developed in honor of a scientific celebration of Earth's polar regions, The International Polar Year (IPY) of 2007–9. The activities are suitable for children ages 8–13 unless otherwise noted in the "activities" section. Discover links to additional games, activities, and information in the "further resources" section."

"The Web Site edition of Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary has been revised to reflect the most current changes made to the Iñupiat spelling system since the 1970 edition. Those changes include replacing the k (with a dot underneath) to the letter q representing the sound farther back in the throat than k or g. Although many changes were needed in the postbases section, only those changes that could be fixed easily were done rather than revising the entire section. The postbase section was, for that reason, left in its original form with only a few changes made. "