Polar News and Notes Upcoming Opportunities

If you are attending the NSTA national conference in New Orleans this week, be sure to connect with Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears! You’ll be able to find us at a variety of locations and events:
Exhibit Hall
National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Booth: #1532
Presentations
Energy and the Polar Environment
Saturday, March 21
5-6 pm
Convention Center, Room R04
Download the presentation […]

The USA-National Phenology Network (USA-NPN), a consortium of government, academic and citizen scientists, has launched a new program built on volunteer observations of seasonal changes in plant and animal behavior. The observations will be monitored by scientists and resource managers to track the influence of climate changes on the seasonal cycles of plants, animals, and […]

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. local time to make a global statement about the urgent need for action on climate change.
Observed annually, Earth Hour is expected to involve 950 cities […]

Rick Holt, a 2008 Iditarod finisher, near Finger Lake. Photo courtesy of John Concilus.
It’s that time again – the 37th annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race across Alaska will begin at 10 am, March 7, 2009. This ceremonial start is in downtown Anchorage, with the competitive start (or “restart”) scheduled for Sunday, March 8, 2009 in […]

On March 20, the Spring Equinox, NASA invites a worldwide audience to observe Sun-Earth Day. Among the events planned is a webcast at 1:00 p.m. EST, featuring a panel of scientists, students monitoring the sun, and images and visualizations.  
With the theme Our Sun, Yours to Discover, the NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum hopes to […]

March 18 will be the eighth quarterly Polar Day sponsored by the International Polar Year (IPY) organization to enable schools and other groups worldwide to join in celebration of polar research. The March theme is Polar Oceans.
Ocean-related activities will continue throughout the week of March 17-26. Resources provided by IPY include virtual balloon launches, activities […]

You are invited to share your International Polar Year (IPY) activities and resources with other teachers at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference, March 19-22, in New Orleans.
The Arctic Research Consortium (ARCUS) is organizing Teacher Share! A Share-a-Thon for Teachers Involved in IPY on Saturday, March 21, from 9 to 11 a.m. at […]

Tonight at 7pm EST we’re having an online chat in the TappedIn online learning community - http://tappedin.org. We’ll be working our way through the February 2009 issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears online magazine. If you can’t join us, you can still take “our tour” below. We meet the first Thursday of each month […]

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Jessica Fries-Gaither will present “Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Integrating K-5 Science and Literacy” at the 2009 Educational Technology Conference in Columbus, OH. The presentation is scheduled for 2 pm in room C226. During the session, participants will be introduced to the Beyond Penguins project and the variety of technological tools […]

The Great Backyard Bird Count will take place February 13-16, 2009. The sponsors, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, invite people of all ages throughout North America to contribute to knowledge about bird population trends.
Anyone, from novice bird watchers to experts, can participate by counting for as little as 15 […]