The following educational materials are designed for use with middle and high school students, outside of school, to learn more about polar regions as well as the research done there, the tools used, and the careers available. By providing youth with hands-on and data-rich activities inspired by the work of contemporary researchers, we hope to build engagement with science, help youth identify as scientists, and create fascination for what can be learned.
Why Polar Literacy?
Addressing the challenges of climate change is a global effort which involves cooperation. Yet, in the United States, less than 20 percent of teens claim they are “very well informed” about the causes, consequences and solutions to global warming; only 27 percent claim they learned “a lot” about climate change in school; and only 6 percent of teens claim global warming is an “extremely important” issue to them personally (Leiserowitz et al., 2011).
References
References
- Leiserowitz, A., Smith, N., and Marlon, J.R. (2011) American Teen’s Knowledge of Climate Change. Yale University. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. http://environment.yale.edu/uploads/american-teens-knowledge-of-climate-change.pdf
Publications
- Peggau, Karina, Jason Cervenec, Evan Van Tassell, Angus Fletcher, Sue Hogan, Emily Kridel, and Ellen Iverson. 2022. “Connecting Youth Using Arctic Mystery-Themed Kits.” Journal of STEM Outreach 5 (1): 1–12.
- Hunt, M. and Cervenec, J. 2021. Exploring Polar Science. Ohio State University Extension Publishing.