Introduction
If there really is a pole at the North Pole, I bet there's some dead explorer-guy with his tongue stuck to it. — Bob Van Voris
No, Bob Van Voris is not a polar explorer, but he can get a young person’s attention with this line! For the real deal, check out explorers Robert Peary, Robert Falcon Scott, and Richard E. Byrd. Polar science is a topic both your students and you can get into. This publication gives you a variety of angles to choose from in implementing a study of polar science.
Polar exploration has an intriguing, sometimes sad, and brutal history. The most fundamental motivation of early explorers may have been "Because it's there." But what are the current motivations? Human curiosity is certainly still a motivator. Another is that the poles have been likened to the “canary in the mine shaft”. (Miners once used the sensitive birds to detect toxic gases in air.) Whereas the canary’s fate signaled the condition of the mine, the poles signal the condition of the earth. You can facilitate student discovery of this theme through engagement with the resources provided here.
Many children come to school with a fascination for the polar regions. One reason for this might be related to their associating the North Pole with Santa Claus. Another might be the images they have encountered in the media, especially in movies such as March of the Penguins and 8 Below. Thus, student interest may already be there, and capitalizing on it to enhance understanding of any of the content domains of the National Science Education Standards is an easy transition.
On the face of it, polar science is necessarily earth science and thus aligned with the National Science Education Standards Earth and Space Science Content Standard D. But it certainly does not end there. All other content standards align with a study of polar science, including Science and Technology; Life and Physical Sciences; History and Nature of Science; and, perhaps especially, Personal and Social Perspectives.
We know you may not have six weeks to spend on a single topic, so we've created sections that can stand alone. These include background information for teachers, visualizing the poles, physical attributes of the poles, biology at the poles, environmental issues and current research projects related to polar science, and of course links to the standards.
Pedagogically speaking, students will need support, first, in accurately visualizing the location of the poles relative to the rest of the earth and, second, in distinguishing between the North and South Poles. Resources provided under Visualizing the Poles and Physical Attributes of the Poles are designed to help teachers meet this need. In addition, students need some understanding of climate and weather, biological and ecological systems, and populations and communities. Here are some publications from the National Science Digital Library Middle School Portal that may be of assistance:
by Mary LeFever
Mary LeFever is a resource specialist for the Middle School Portal, and a doctoral candidate in science education at Ohio State University. She has taught middle school and high school science and is an adjunct instructor of biology and natural sciences at Columbus State Community College. Please email any comments to msp@msteacher.org
There’s More! You’ll know when new science publications are posted on NSDL Middle School Portal by requesting free email notices at http://msteacher.org/registration.aspx. Don’t forget to browse the Science Pathway every once in a while to find a wealth of resources for your teaching.
Blog with Us. Every week, we connect what’s making the news to the national science content standards…so you can too! Read and share your ideas on our blog Connecting the News to National Science Education Standards at http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/connectingnews/.
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Copyright
March 2008 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of
the National Science Foundation.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
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