Welcome to it.
Yesterday 22 Arctic-bound teachers and 6 PolarTREC employees met in Fairbanks, AK to begin polar preparations. We listened to veteran polar teachers and staff tell tales of deeply satisfying experiences learning science, scientific practice, and self-discovery in the Arctic regions.
PolarTREC has been sponsoring teachers to accompany researchers at and near the poles of the Earth for three years through a NSF grant for International Polar Year (IPY). It turns out that IPY stretches from 2007-2009. Even though IPY is coming to an end March 20th, 2009, the PolarTREC people will write a grant to continue their sponsorship of teachers.
I am here under different funding. Through the project IceCube and the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation I have been sponsored to go to the South Pole Research Station to study neutrinos with the IceCube scientists. I will be traveling to Antarctica during the 2010 to 2011 winter an as such haven't been given a place yet in the PolarTREC world. I might never get one, depending on their continued funding, so I'm looking for somewhere else to host a website. If you're reading this, then PolarTREC has received its much-deserved funding and is hosting my content in the 2010 research projects.
So far, we've had a chance to get to know the other teachers and we've shared some of our coolest science content. The group is alternately ecstatic and overwhelmed, loving every moment and fearing the technology, the hours, and above all, the cold. Teachers have been assigned equipment and now we're learning to use it in a way that others can access, by this Virtual Base Camp. Check in here for more later. I hope you enjoy this journey as I'm sure I will.