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2019 PolarTREC Educator Fellow, this is a new title that I am still getting used to. Many thoughts have gone through my mind as I begin the amazing journey that will take me to the ends of the world. I cannot help the excitement that has reinvigorated my passion for teaching. The Arctic, a place

"Learning about climate change is too depressing." "I can't listen or watch those news stories anymore. The starving polar bear picture is so sad!" Many people are understandingly reluctant to discuss or even learn about climate change. It's a massive, intimidating topic. The underlying message can

In 1947, the United States Air Force (USAF) created the fascinating, and sometimes controversial, Arctic Aeromedical Laboratory (AAL) based out of the Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, AK. With the close of WWII and rising tensions with Russia, the United States saw the arctic as a potential theater

As I informed my students that I would be missing a week of school to attend orientation, they only had one question and one request ___ ###Question: Where am I going? The answer: Fairbanks, AK! 4,157 miles away from our school and I got here by taking 3 flights, which actually took 16 hours not

After travelling with me on an expedition in 2016 aboard the deep sea drilling ship the JOIDES Resolution, SloMo, a sloth puppet, joined my 7th grade class. He is a great addition to our team in my science class and allows my students to connect science to their everyday lives. It is also a lot of

"This is going to be fun ." That was my first thought after hanging up the phone when PolarTREC called to give me the news that I had been selected for PolarTREC. I had learned about the program more than a year ago, but just weeks after the deadline for that year had closed. On my calendar, I wrote

As my Honors Biology students at St. Thomas Aquinas High School shuffled out of my third block class, my phone rang. It was Sarah Bartholow on the other end of the line and my heart began to race. “Dr. Lee Cooper would like to work with you for the 2019 PolarTREC season!” With

"What will you do with your one wild and precious life?"## Mary Oliver's words rang through my ears as I sat on a rock close to my home in northern California. Hmmmm? What will I do with this life of mine? I found a piece of scrap paper, wrote DREAMS in the middle of it, and, with my colorful

Being selected as an educator for the PolarTrec program has honestly been a mess of emotions. At first, I was insanely excited, being selected to go to Antarctica to study seals, AMAZING. But, as the year progressed my excited became outweighed by my stress. It really started with the PQ process

Fairing well in Fairbanks! We arrived in Fairbanks late Saturday and began our first day of PolarTREC training Sunday morning. We are officially PolarTREC educators and the 2019 cohort is full of eager, dedicated, and inspiring teachers! I've already learned a lot, and not just from PolarTREC