Education and Outreach  

Other ALISON Teacher Activities

ALISON Workshops

Each summer since 2003 a workshop for ALISON teachers has been held in Fairbanks. The workshops are an opportunity for the teachers to meet, often for the first time, and work and learn together. This reduces the professional and physical isolation that affects so many teachers in Alaska because of the great distances and often expensive and limited transportation opportunities. The teachers also obtain UAF credit for attending the workshop if they enroll in a course offered through the School of Education: ED595 - Snow, Ice and Arctic Environmental Change: Integrating Polar Science into the K-12 Science and Mathematics Curriculum. These credits are accepted for teacher recertification, which is required every five years in Alaska.

Many topics and activities have been pursued at the workshops. They include: Recent evidence for environmental Arctic change; Lake ice growth, variability and change; Conductive heat flow through ice and snow (hands-on calculation and manipulation of real data); Lake ice crystal texture and formation (hands-on in the freezer lab’); heat and energy activities for the classroom (hands-on); data visualization and interpretation (hands-on); SI units: People, places and events; James Prescott Joule and Joule’s Law; Using models for teaching science and mathematics; Snow and ice & science education standards; How to run an ALISON study site; Guest speakers; Permafrost Tunnel tour.

Some Workshop Activities