Background  

Objective

The goal of ALISON is to create a professional learning community that [1] increases knowledge and understanding of scientific inquiry and promotes polar science in the classroom, [2] contributes to scientific knowledge and understanding of lake ice and snow, [3] reduces teachers' physical and professional isolation, and [4] improves ties and understanding between K-12 educators and university faculty.

The educational rationale for ALISON is that teachers in Alaska experience significant physical and professional isolation; this causes high employment turnover rates and instability in schools, which affect student performance in science and mathematics.

The scientific rationale for ALISON is that lake ice thickness and duration are sensitive indicators of climate variability and change, and the conductive heat flow through the ice and snow as ice grows dominates the winter surface energy balance; however, few lake ice thickness, duration and conductive heat flow data are available in Alaska at a time when the consequences of environmental change are being observed statewide.

Angel sculpted out of lake ice, Fairbanks, January 2002.

ALISON combines educational and scientific need by [1] supporting teacher professional development and student learning in the local context through the study of those abundant and familiar materials, snow and ice, that [2] creates scientifically valuable data that document the lake ice and conductive heat flow variability in Alaska, and which can be used for evaluating the performance of numerical models of past, contemporary and future lake ice and heat flow variability.