Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

WAIS Divide Outreach Program  (WAISDOP)

Outline
Project Summary: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Outreach Program is a multifaceted program that incorporates a traveling museum quality exhibition titled Climate – Frozen in Time, multimedia materials, and classroom appropriate, standards-based curricular materials. The program is designed to demonstrate how scientific concepts and process skills are applied in Antarctic climate change research on the NSF-funded WAIS Divide ice coring program (WAIS Divide). Students and the general public will experience the process of Antarctic ice coring and understand how fundamental science concepts are used in Antarctic research to learn more about Earth’s changing climate. Goals1. Demonstrate how classroom science content and process skills (science inquiry, data collection, critical thinking, and problem-solving) can be connected to Antarctic climate change research.2. Provide opportunities for audiences to interact with the exhibition and express their understanding about the collection and analysis of climate data.3. Develop a program that promotes trans-generational formal and informal education where parents, children, and the general public learn together.The intellectual merit of the WAIS Divide Outreach Program is to facilitate an audience's experience in using basic science concepts and process skills to understand the multi-phased Antarctic ice coring process, including the final interpretations of climate change and its global impacts. For example, one aspect of the outreach program includes 3-D materials to support the understanding that deeper layers of rock and ice are older than the shallow layers, known as the Law of Superposition. This basic science concept is critical to many sciences and is applied directly to the WAIS Divide ice coring project. The concept is then extended, in order to demonstrate how annual snow/ice layers contain chemical elements from the atmosphere at the time the snow deposited. The aim is to lead audiences to learn how the climate record is recorded in ice cores, how an ice core is dated (using annual layers), and why deep ice cores, such as the WAIS Divide cores, allow scientists to interpret long records of Earth's climatic past. The exhibition uses live, virtual (web-based) and multimedia materials designed to allow attendees to follow the entire process, from the choosing of an Antarctic ice core site through to the final analyses of the ice cores. The broader impacts of this outreach program are to reach otherwise under-served communities with a live and virtual museum quality traveling exhibition, curricular materials, and to present the nature of climate science and its data as reliable and applicable to an audience’s everyday understanding of climate change. This, in turn, gives audiences the information needed to make their own interpretations of global climate change. The more informed audiences are concerning global climate change, the better able they will be to make important decisions about their place in the global climate story.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
The multifaceted WAIS Divide Outreach Program will create a diverse package of in-depth experiences designed to engage the public intimately with the process and analysis of basic science research (ice coring). This will then improve their understanding of climate change and its consequences, and thereby encourage involvement in global solutions to the climate crisis. This outreach program will also promote lifelong and cooperative learning experiences and connect the general public with more formal education spheres. The primary audience is the multi-generational lay public – targeted at middle school aged children and older in the US and abroad. It also explicitly ties itself to middle school and high school curricula and scientific process in school classrooms and provides an avenue for parents and other adults to share experiences and dialogue in learning about this critical scientific topic. The outreach program will reach a public audience of over 1 million through its live exhibition, Climate – Frozen in Time, and its web site in five years. These numbers are based on the yearly attendance of the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH), the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), and the Wright Center's web site hits. Since the outreach program corresponds with the International Polar Year and the timely topic of global climate change, the program's reach will be maximized as audiences seek resources to learn more about polar research and climate change.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
No significant international collaboration for logistics is required although the target audience of this outreach plan includes international educators.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
No field work is required, although a member of the outreach staff will accompany the WAIS Divide science team in the field during the 2006-2007 Antarctic field season at the WAIS Divide site. A member of the outreach team is available to accompany other international polar research teams to assist in reaching a larger international audience.

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: n/a
Antarctic: 2006-2007            

Significant facilities will be required for this project:

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?

This program does not have its own field component and will not require field logistics.

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
Yes. This outreach program has been endorsed by Dr Kendrick Taylor, Desert Research Institute, Nevada, director of the WAIS Divide ice coring program. Letters of support for the outreach program have been written by Mr. Mark Twickler Director of the science management office of the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) and Dr. Todd Hinkley, technical director of NICL.

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?


This outreach program is a new program but is established to support the WAIS Divide ice coring program directed by Dr Kendrick Taylor, Desert Research Institute, Nevada.

How will the project be organised and managed?
WAISDOP will be organized and maintained by the Wright Center at Tufts University. This program is a collaboration between personnel at the Wright center for Science Education, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Cincinnati Museum Center, Lesley University, and Shippensburg University to create a comprehensive outreach program that will develop a public connection to the NSF-funded WAIS Divide ice coring program. This collaboration is extended then to science centers, museums, and other educational institutions that contract for the use of the traveling exhibition. The traveling exhibition will be promoted and managed by the Cincinnati Museum Center.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
This program is 100% about translating the science of Antarctic research for understanding by students and the general public. WAISDOP will make this information available to an international audience with its focus on creating and marketing an exhibition (live and virtual) that is more broadly accessible to small town and rural audiences through venues such as public schools, universities, and community and tribal centers.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
There is no need for data management in this outreach program.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
A proposal for WAISDOP was submitted to the NSF office of Informal Science Education (program solicitation NSF 04-579) on January 6, 2005.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
As stated in the National Science Education Standards, sound scientific education is based on an understanding of the history and nature of scientific advancements, and is and ongoing, changing enterprise. The WAIS Divide ice coring program is a scientific platform that will utilize the expertise of over a dozen individual science programs that focus their research interests on analyzing ice cores to understand more about the global climate system. These scientists will partner with experts in science education, multimedia instructional tools, and museum professionals to create a high-impact program. The physical exhibition will be designed to have long-term relevance, and the supporting web and curricular materials will be updated to reflect ongoing scientific results. The WAIS Divide ice coring effort will serve as the vehicle for development of a “virtual” experience on the WAIS Divide outreach program through its traveling exhibition and supporting website.

PROPOSER DETAILS

Mr Zach Smith
Wright Center for Science Education
Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA
02155
USA

Tel: 617 627 5394
Mobile: no
Fax: 617 627 3995
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation