I am really lucky to have been selected as a PolarTREC teacher. I am not sure that I can list all the reasons why yet; however, a big one is being able to interact with a special group of people who are committed to science education and to helping me bring the field experience into the classroom.
Here we are! PolarTREC 2008 teacher pictures and expeditions, all in once place. (Courtesy of ARCUS)
Last night I participated in a webinar, a seminar on the web. This webinar was the second for PolarTREC, and it was so much more rewarding! After spending a week in a conference room, at the Ice Park, at the Reindeer Farm, in the Permafrost tunnel with these 12 other science teachers + the ARCUS staff, reconnecting on the web was quite easy. We use both typing and VOIP (voice-over-internet-protocol) to communicate, and, yes, we can even use emoticons.
Mrs. Ward participates in a PolarTREC webinar, connecting with science teachers from around the USA, from her dining room in Durham NC
Last night we talked about ways to promote our expeditions, connections that we can make with students, and lesson plans we can develop in the field. We brainstormed about experiments, flags, drift bottles, journaling, and more. We shared success and got help with challenges. We congratulated a teacher who just won a big award and missed two who could not join us. A past PolarTREC teacher gave us the benefit of her experience and several researchers chimed in to give us their perspective.
And all of this happened over 4 time zones and in at least 12 different locations facilitated by the wonderful folks at ARCUS (who facilitate everything about this experience!)
We went into over-time.
All to say that in the virtual world, human connections are possible.....but face-time is critical to that success.
Gerty Ward says-- see you soon, virtually!