Geophysical Institute Created Programs
Earth System Science Education Evaluation Toolkit
The Evaluation Toolkit offers examples of how evaluation and assessment are/have been used in Earth System Science courses and programs. The goal is to help instructors recognize different types of tools and uses that have proved useful in these courses and provide models for designing assessments in new courses. The Evaluation Toolkit is of use to instructors designing undergraduate Earth System Science Education.
Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science Summer School
Each summer the UAF Geophysical Institute hosts a Polar Aeronomy and Radio Science (PARS) Summer School, which provides instruction and hands-on experimental experience for students and their graduate advisors. This school is supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Upper Atmosphere Program of the National Science Foundation. Instructional activities over a two week period with opportunities for hands-on observational experiments at Poker Flat research range and the HAARP Gakona Observatory.
The PARS Summer School provides an opportunity for students to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere at polar latitudes with practical experience built into the learning process. The theme of the school is Incoherent-Scatter RADAR and AMISR. Instruction will cover radar basics, incoherent-scatter theory, radar experiment techniques, the characteristics of the ionosphere and atmosphere which is the target observed by ISR, and finally ISR observations of ionospheric modification experiments.
Students are invited to apply for enrollment by submission of a proposal for a project that could be undertaken either at Poker Flat Research Range or Gakona Observatory. The basis for selection will be the proposals submitted. Applications will be ranked according to merit. Credits will be given for investigations with a well defined question to be answered and a plan which offers a good chance of substantial results using the observations to be made during the school.
Bill Bristow
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Geophysical Institute
P.O. Box 757320
Fairbanks, AK 99775
ffwab [at] uaf [dot] edu
Polar Remote Sensing: A Resource for Undergraduate Education
A growing collection of selected case studies that are based on the use of remote sensing data and tools to study various features and phenomena operating in the Polar Regions. The case studies are generated from research work of polar researchers and research projects of graduate and undergraduate students.
The target audience for the Polar Remote Sensing: A Resource for Undergraduate Education is post-secondary students and faculty following and/or teaching Earth System Science courses and, more specifically, upper-level undergraduate remote sensing courses. The online resource is developed with the assumption that the student has basic knowledge of remote sensing principles, data, data processing and analysis techniques.