# Presentation: 644282

## International Polar YearOverview and Connections with GLOBE

**Elena Sparrow, Rebecca Boger,  and Mark McCaffrey**
**GLOBE Annual Conference**
**Phuket, Thailand, July 2006**

## IPY Concept

**Intense, internationally coordinated campaign of polar observations, research and analysis with aims to: **
**better understand physical and social processes in polar regions, **
**examine connections to global climate system, and **
**establish research infrastructure for the future. **
**IPY will galvanize new and innovative observations and research while building on and enhancing existing relevant initiatives.**
**Timeframe: 1 March 2007 –1 March 2009**

## Why International?

**The polar regions –both North and South –are inherently international terrain**
**What happens in the polar regions affects ALL nations around the globe**
**The science challenges exceed the capability of any one nation**
**A coordinated approach maximizes outcomes**
**International collaboration shares the benefits and builds common understanding**

## Why Polar?

**Environmental changes in polar regions are unprecedented and vivid**
**Arctic sea ice cover decreasing in extent**
**Some Antarctic ice shelves are retreating and thinning**
**Glaciers around the globe are retreating**
**Ecosystems changing (earlier bloom times)**
**Changes in permafrost**
**The polar regions play key roles in global processes**
**The ice is a “library” of information about the past**

## Why a Year?

**Intensive burst of effort will accelerate progress and initiate activities that couldn’t be done otherwise**
**Intensive investigations will lay groundwork for sustained assessments of environmental change and variability**
**Provides opportunity for observations at both polar regions over all seasons**
**Resulting enhanced infrastructure and observing systems will provide improved foundation for ongoing science**
**Building on previous International Polar Years: 1882-83, 1932-33, and IGY in 1957-58**

## Key Themes 

**People**
**Earth plate tectonics**
**Land – ecosystems**
**Ocean**
**Ice**
**Atmosphere: weather and climate**
**Space**
**Education and Outreach**

## International Polar Year EOC Subcommittee

_**Six Focus Themes**_
**Academia and Higher Education**
**Evaluation & Assessment**
**Primary/Secondary Education**
**Science and Public Relations**
**Exhibitions and Events**
**Art**

**International Polar Year ****EOC Subcommittee**

**Notes:**
In planning for the upcoming IPY, the IPYEOC subcommittee, which Mark is a member of, has identified six focus themes, including evaluation and assessment, meaning measuring the effectiveness of EOC efforts through surveys, interviews and observations of the audiences we engage with, and the theme of art, which speaks for itself.    There are, in fact, a wide range of polar art projects that already exist with many more in the works for IPY. 

## Planning IPY EOC in USA 

- Bridging the Poles Workshop 2004

- Washington, D.C. - NSF

- Boulder, CO - NOAA/CIRES

- Poles Together Workshop 2005

**Planning IPY EOC in USA**** **

**Polar Research Board and National Academies Reports **
**Bridging the Poles and Poles Together workshops **
**Current NSF IPY solicitation**

## ICE

- Integrated Collaborative Education

**Online Strategic Planning Workshop funded by NSF and NOAA**
- March 17-31, 2006
- ~200 participants

- International
- Interdisciplinary
- Interactive
- Identify key concepts for Polar Literacy

## Top Ten Themes

- Uniqueness of Polar Regions

- Complexity & Connections of Earth System

- Extremes & Variability

- People & Stories

- What We Don’t Know

- Holistic Study - Transdisciplinary

- History & Culture

- New Models for Stewardship & Collaboration

- Nature of (Polar) Science

- Global Climate Change

**Polar Literacy Themes**

**Notes:**
One of the outcomes of the ICE workshop was a list of “top ten themes” which were identified as being key concepts (each with their own areas of misconceptions) that participants in the workshop identified as being important “hooks” for conveying the “polar science- global impacts” of IPY activities. 

The themes are
Extremes and variability (projected temperature increases will be greater in polar regions than the global average)
Uniquenessof Polar Regions
Complexity and connections of the Earth System
Global climate change
Importance of Polar Science
What we don’t know (the unknowns)
New models of stewardship and collaboration (David Carlson tells all the project leads that they must leave a place cleaner than when they arrived)
Holistic study-- beyond interdisciplinary, transcending boundaries
History and culture of polar places and peoples
And people and stories-- narratives that can bring alive the polar perspective

## Online Resources for Teachers

**Discovering Antarctica (British Antarctic Survey) **_[http://](http://www.discoveringantarctica.org.uk/)__[www.discoveringantarctica.org.uk](http://www.discoveringantarctica.org.uk/)_
**International Polar Foundation Education**** **_[http://www.educapoles.org](http://www.educapoles.org/)_
**Coming soon: ****New, Improved **_**IPY.ORG **__[http://](http://ipy.org/)__[ipy.org](http://ipy.org/)_
**US Site: www.us-ipy.gov**

**Notes:**
I wanted to mention to you just a couple of online resources for polar-related materials.  The British Antarctic Survey has a site called “Discovering Antarctica” which is very well done, with lots of video clips and high quality information.

Also, the International Polar Foundation has an education site with animations that younger students will be engaged by.

And the IPY.org website will soon be updated and improved; right now it is a bit dry and technical. 

## Connections with GLOBE?Your thoughts