Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Arctic Climate Modeling Program  (ACMP)

Outline
The Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) is a comprehensive project for K-12 students and teachers offering progressive yearlong science, technology and math instruction incorporating information technology (IT) applications that culminate in computer modeling of climate change effects. The three-year NSF-funded project leads up to and continues through the 2007-08 International Polar Year (IPY). During ACMP, a seven-partner consortium of research institutes and Native corporations show 1700 Alaska Native students and 165 teachers how to apply weather and climate physics knowledge to local problems and decision-making, and help students gain IT workforce skills applicable to current Arctic climate research associated with professional IPY projects. Teachers and students in the Bering Strait School District, an area with low standardized test scores, high dropout, poverty and geographic isolation, benefit from a combined total of 37,890 and 195,600 contact hours, respectively. Teachers earn University of Alaska credits for participation. The intellectual merit of ACMP lies in its innovative model for infusing teacher training with IT proficiencies that address academic performance and relate to a subject of state, national and international concern: climate change and its potential effects on subsistence lifestyles in Alaska and throughout the circumpolar North. Broader impacts: ACMP emulates and extends methods used in successful PI-created models blending Native traditional knowledge with modern science, and has the potential to improve minority student achievement and teacher instructional ability regionally, statewide, nationally, and internationally through IPY association. ACMP student inquiry parallels professional Arctic research, training students for careers that can be conducted from rural areas, thereby serving a minority population in need of professional opportunities while diversifying the IT workforce.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
During ACMP, students collect data from weather stations in 15 villages throughout the Bering Straight School District. Prior to ACMP, weather stations did not exist in these remote locations. Consequently, in addition to being used for student instruction, weather data from these stations are automatically sent (using WeatherLink software) to the National Weather Service and the Geographic Information Network of Alaska to help them assess the current state of the polar environment. During ACMP, students interview Native Elders in association with a professional scientific research project that compares Elder statements about historic weather with data obtained from scientific instruments in the Arctic. Students also work with UAF scientists on six other specific on-going professional research projects being conducted in Alaska, most of which are associated with IPY. These Arctic projects investigate new frontiers, and address change in the polar regions and its potential effects and linkages to the rest of the globe from both a scientific and human societal vantage point. Data and curriculum resulting from ACMP will be archived as an IPY Legacy on the UAF Science Education Outreach Network and on DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education).

What international collaboration is involved in this project?

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
This project occurs within the Bering Strait School District on the west coast of Alaska. The professional research projects with which student work from the Bering Strait School District will be associated occur within Alaska. Some of this research and fieldwork has international connections, which are facilitated by the researchers involved.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: Oct/2005 – Sept/2006      Oct/2006 – Sept/2007      Oct/2007 – July/2008
Antarctic: n/a

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
There will be no significant logistic support facilities required for this project. This project provides weather stations to remote areas so that students can help obtain weather data for professional research projects from previously inaccessible areas. These resources cannot be shared with other projects; the data from them can.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
Yes. Program end products include a multimedia interactive CDROM, a Teacher’s Manual of 60 hands-on class-room lessons and 20 IT exercises, Student-Inquiry Handbooks with guidelines for annual ACMP youth camp experimental stations, and a Science Mentor Notebook, containing a DVD of 27 science lectures and related activities. Many of these products will be translated into the Alaska Native languages of Inupiaq, Athabaskan, and Yup’ik. At grant conclusion, instruction is distributed to 580 teachers and 7500 students in two Alaska districts used as program control groups, and is downloadable for students within Alaska, nationally and internationally from the ACMP Website. ACMP inclusion on the IPY Website (education section under development) also will promote international distribution in the Polar Regions.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?
National agency
Other sources of support

This program has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Also, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has committed to continuing the website and data collection after grant end.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Yes. It has been endorsed and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
Yes

This project is a new autonomous project that was designed, in part, to prepare students to become ready participants in the IPY. It encompasses the two years preceding IPY and operates through 2007-2008.

How will the project be organised and managed?
A seven-partner consortium of research institutes and Native corporations are involved in this project. The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the lead institute and the institute in which the PI resides. The other research institutes include: the Center for Global Change/Arctic System Research; the International Arctic Research Center; and the Alaska Satellite Facility. The Native corporations include: the Bering Strait Native Corporation; KAWERAK, Inc, and the Eskimo Walrus Commission

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
State, national, and international dissemination of the products listed under Item 2.4 will be provided through Websites, conference attendance, journal publication, and museum display. ACMP products are available on the ACMP Website. Links to the UAF Science Education Outreach Network and the AKRSI Alaska Native Knowledge Network provide statewide distribution potential to K-12 teachers. Product dissemination to US teachers of minority populations is fostered through inclusion on the National Indian Education Association and Indigenous Education Institute Websites. ACMP also are scheduled for inclusion on National Science Teachers Association’s new “Building a Presence for Science” Website. ACMP inclusion on the IPY Website (education section under development) will promote international distribution in the Polar Regions. The PI is scheduled to discuss UAF education outreach, including ACMP products, at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting, and the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, and intends to present at the NSTA National Convention and the Alaska Science Consortium Math/Science Conference. The PI also intends to submit articles on ACMP to the Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, Curriculum Review, and Learning and Leading with Technology, and to submit ACMP products for inclusion on DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education). The ACMP CDROM can be used in museum exhibits and is scheduled for inclusion in a PBS documentary featuring UAF involvement in IPY.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
Data from weather stations in remote areas will be managed through the Geophysical Institute with links to the Geographic Information Network of Alaska. Data will be made available to a variety of sources, including the U.S. National Weather Service and the Alaska Climate Research Center.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
This project has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Director Kathryn Bertram
Geophysical Institute Education Outreach Office, University of Alaska Fairbanks
903 Koyukuk Drive PO Box 757320
Fairbanks, Alaska
99775
USA

Tel: 907-474-7798
Mobile: no
Fax: 907-474-7125
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation