With PolarTREC, even walking across a relatively peaceful city is turned into a fun adventure. Montreal is an exemplary city for highlighting the efficiency of public transportation. In just 24 hours I had taken a bus, subway, taxi, walked to many locations, and even contemplated taking a bike from the bike-sharing program. My first bus ride from the airport brought me within a few blocks of my hotel. Walking down the street I was greeted by a large crowd of rowdy students, a slew of media personnel, and police in riot gear. Assessing the situation, it seemed reasonable to walk through the middle of it. I figured I looked enough like a tourist and nothing too rowdy was happening at the moment. That is until I had to duck into a doorway to avoid a line of police rushing the sidewalk to move the crowd back. A few broken windows later, news reporters explained that students were protesting tuition increases.
Police confront a student protestor in downtown Montreal.
Student protestors gather in the streets.
An International Experience
As my day settled down, I realized I was in for quite an experience. 170 educators from 15 countries and 5 continents had all gathered for a two day Polar Educators workshop. The video below captures the essence of the weekend. Celebrity Alert: If you look closely enough you can even catch a very quick partial glimpse of me. While it's not as clear as my role in Talladega Nights, it is nearly twice as long.
http://youtu.be/f4qfp6uT27I
Over the next two days I would interact with teachers from literally all over the world, and hear inspiring talks from researchers and educators. Each day had a quote that really stuck with me. The University of Colorado's Jim White spoke about climate change on the first day of the workshop, "It is real and actually really simple." He continued "If we add lots of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, the Earth will warm. To expect otherwise denies simple physics." He continued to liken denying climate change to denying gravity, which he pointed out we understand less about than we do about greenhouse gases. Dr. White's brevity and simple explanations reminded me that often a simple message does a better job conveying science.
Glacier Goo!
Over the two day period we also got to be students by trying out some labs and activities shared by Polar Educators and Researchers. I'm excited to try out some of these new lessons with my students back in the classroom!
Simulating glacier movement with Glacier Goo!
https://www.cresis.ku.edu/education/k-12/ice-ice-baby-lessons The site has detailed directions and everything you will need including a recipe for glacier goo, and example kinds of glaciers illustrations. Explore the site to find many more great lessons and resources.
Education of a Different Kind
The second day's quote was posted during an inspirational talk by Lisa Glithero, founder of the EYES Project. The EYES Project is a nonprofit organization that has set out to "promote the values, knowledge and skills of sustainable community building as priorities in the education of youth."
"The volume of education has increased and continues to increase, yet so do pollution, exhaustion of resources, and the dangers of ecological catastrophe. If still more education is to save us, it would have to be education of a different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of things." - E F Schumacher
These words would stay with me as I continued through my week at the International Polar Year Conference…and into the depth of things.