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Cecelia Vitale-Reddy and Helen Summer, EdVenture
Go Polar! is a layered and integrated program, with multiple entry points and diverse activities designed to expose a wide-range of young children and their families to the nature of Arctic scientific research. Click here for overview and evaluation report.
Central Go Polar! themes:
- the importance and uniqueness of the Arctic;
- the relationship of the Arctic to global climate change and ocean circulation;
- human, plant, and animal adaptations to the dynamic landscapes of the Arctic.
Unique elements of the Go Polar! program:
Meet the Arctic Scientist, Arctic Weekends, and Art Alley. Go Polar! activities included presentations from actual scientists studying the polar regions. Arctic Weekends offered visitors an opportunity to conduct water-related experiments.Community schools displayed their Arctic art at the EdVenture Children's Museum. Click here for more details.
EdVenture Polar Club. Participants in the Go Polar! activities will be encouraged to join the EdVenture Polar Club. Members will receive a monthly e-Go Polar! newsletter announcing special events and Arctic news.
International Polar Year: Spring 2006 Newsletter
Go Polar! Passport. To encourage children and their families to join the Polar Club and participate in as many of the planned Go Polar! activities as possible, we have created a "Go Polar! Passport." The passport features the child's photograph, name in both Russian and English, a schedule of program activities, space for official stamps signifying completion of an activity, a page for entering data from hands-on laboratory activities, blank pages for observations and notes, and additional information about the Arctic. The back page includes a glossary of Arctic terms in both Russian and English, as well as both alphabets.
Special honors course. To encourage positive interactions among young children and college undergraduates from the University of South Carolina, dr doug created the concept of Learning through Experiential Outreach (LEO). LEO was initiated with two new Honors courses, "Science of the Arctic" in the Fall of 2004 and “Polar Science” in the Spring 2005. Both science and non-science undergraduates participated. Click here for reports describing the activities created by the Honors undergraduates including prototype “Arctic Discovery Boxes” and scripts for a “Spring Polar Festival” programming.
Teachers Guide
Overview Script
Full Script with Activities
The goals of these courses were to learn about the science of the Arctic and the Antarctic and then to create and design hands-on educational materials and activities for elementary school-aged children and families. USC undergraduates had opportunities to present their materials to school groups and the general public at EdVenture. Undergraduates also gained experience working with informal science educators, and the children had opportunities to interact with exceptional role models.
Acknowledgments
Go Polar! was made possible with support from National Science Foundation grant ESI-0336928 and the contributions of Dr. Peter Sederberg, then Dean of the South Carolina Honors College, Dr. Kellah Edens and Ms. Lisa Waller of the USC College of Education, and Ms. Catherine Horne (President of EdVenture) and her staff of the EdVenture Children’s Museum (in particular Ms. Helen Summer and Ms. Penny Cothan). Special thanks also to model builder extraordinaire Jason Savage for the Polar floor interactive, Frank Reddy and William Morris for constructing the Go Polar! website, Chanda Cooper for single-handedly and unselfishly putting together four Go Polar! Club newsletters, Mandy Young for creating a Russian culture table at the Go Polar! presentations, Dr. Fred Lynn of the Governor’s School for Science and Math for loaning us a real Polar Bear shot by polar explorer, Admiral Richard Byrd, and Edward N. Diebold, Curator of Riverbanks Zoological Gardens, for loaning us a variety of Polar Biofacts.
Lastly, we thank the students of the SC Honors College, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, and the Montessori School of St. Andrews for participating in our dream of integrating the undergraduate curriculum, scholarly discovery-research, and community outreach.
The goal of ESI-0336928 was to disseminate on-going NSF-funded research in the Arctic under the theme of the Arctic and Global Change to children and families in an informal science setting provided by the EdVenture Children’s Museum, Columbia, SC, the largest children’s museum in the Southeast. The Go Polar! learning program was made possible by linking a 3-year NSF research grant to study the history of Lena River freshwater discharge to the Russian Arctic (OPP-0229737, Co-PIs Eugene Karabanov and Williams), a one-year NSF Informal Science Education grant (ESI-0336928, Williams), and a partnership among the SC Honors College, museum and family educators of the EdVenture Children’s Museum, and cognitive psychologists of the USC College of Education.