UA launches IPY educator resource guide

Submitted by Jenn Wagaman
Phone: 907-474-5082
09/27/07

This week the UA International Polar Year outreach office launched its K-12 educator resource guide, which aims to help teachers integrate IPY into their lessons. The guide was mailed to every school in the state.

Using the six themes of IPY-change, connections, discovery, observation, people and research-the guide emphasizes polar education and climate change awareness, as well as opportunities for students to learn from working scientists. It includes DVDs and overheads for use in the classroom.

"This guide is just the start of our K-12 outreach efforts that we will continue throughout the remainder of the International Polar Year," says IPY statewide outreach manager Cherie Solie. "We hope that our efforts will provide a model for schools across the nation to join us in this international effort to raise student awareness about the poles and their effects on our world."

In addition to the educator resource guide, the university’s IPY office announced the launch of art and writing contests for Alaska youth. Both contests will run through March 2008. Art contest winners will have their work presented in May at the UA Museum of the North. The writing contest will culminate with presentations by the winners at the 2008 Alaska Science Fair in Anchorage.

Teachers and students can learn more about the guide and the contests, as well as register as a point of contact for their school at www.ipy.alaska.edu.

The polar regions have profound significance for the Earth’s climate and environments, ecosystems and human society. IPY is an interdisciplinary and internationally coordinated research campaign, ushering in a new era of polar science.

CONTACT: Jenn Wagaman, UAF Center for Research Services outreach coordinator, at 907-474-5082 or jenn@alaska.edu or Melissa Hill, Alaska Teacher Placement, at 907-450-8400 or melissa.hill@alaska.edu.

ON THE WEB: www.ipy.alaska.edu