NSF Award
1001186
The investigators will take a snowmobile traverse in March 2010 from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska visiting 10 village schools along the way and collecting snow samples and other data. The primary emphasis is on visits to schools in Fairbank, Nenana, Manley, Tanana, Allakaket, Anaktuvuk, Atqasuk, Barrow Nuiqsut and Wiseman, Alaska, where the team of four researchers will spend 1-2 days working with teachers and students on indoor and outdoor activities about snow chemistry and physics. The lead investigator has published two books to facilitate snow education ?Apun: The Arctic Snow? (Matthew Sturm, University of Alaska Press, 2009) is a book for young students and ?Apun: Teachers Guide? (Matthew Sturm, University of Alaska Press, 2009) is a guide to snow for older students or educators. The materials take a system science approach to snow in the environment and include a multicultural perspective that includes Inupiaq vocabulary for the phenomenon described in the books. The focus is on the students and teachers that will be visited during the traverse, to share knowledge and passion for science through understanding snow, a prevalent feature in the Arctic, and to teach essential concepts of physics and chemistry using snow. In addition the investigators will develop the indoor and outdoor activities into a workbook for classrooms. A website will be updated throughout the traverse and will include educational materials relevant for use by schools not visited by the traverse and as a resource following the traverse. The researchers will also revisit sites from a 1924 survey by the U.S. Geological Survey and sites studied over the previous 10 years by the research team to reconstruct old photographs, collect samples and make observations. Snow samples will be analyzed for soot and mercury by collaborating researchers. A National Park Service biologist will join the team on the traverse to further develop an activity using animal tracks in the snow as a way of estimating animal populations. Yupik and Athabaskan languages will be incorporated in future iterations of ?Apun? and the activity book that will be published following the traverse. This project engages students and teachers in remote parts of Alaska during the school year and supports the production of teaching resources that are relevant to teaching in rural Alaska and other snow-covered locations. Teacher mentoring and dissemination of products from the project will continue through school visits and at conferences with support from this award. A survey of teachers involved in the project will be used to inform the development of the activity book.
