Alaska school teachers learn about climate change
FAIRBANKS - School teachers from across Alaska are getting lessons this month at the University of Alaska Fairbanks so they can more effectively teach their students back home about climate change.
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Sixty teachers are scheduled to participate in this year's Science Teacher Education Program hosted by the Geophysical Institute at the university. During the program's two-week sessions, teachers learn from scientists and develop lesson plans together.
"The plan is to have teachers better prepared to teach science," Mary Martin, the program's coordinator said. "This year it's about scientists teaching about global climate change."
The first session of the program started last week and runs through Friday with 30 teachers participating. Another batch of teachers is scheduled to arrive on campus next week.
Each day, teachers will spend several hours in the morning talking with UAF scientists about the latest research on sea ice, coastal erosion, glaciers, permafrost and hydrology.
Researcher Hajo Eicken on Tuesday showed the teachers how to access high-resolution satellite images and aerial photography mosaics of the Arctic.
"This opens the door to a vast amount of data," Eicken told the teachers as he taught them how to use computer software to view and manipulate the images.
With the help of curriculum experts from the Alaska Science Consortium, the teachers have been working on lesson plans of their own based on what they've learned from the UAF researchers. Those lessons will be compiled and made available for download on the Internet at www.gi.alaska.edu/STEP.