2008 tied with 2001 as the eighth warmest year on record, and climate change dominated polar news during the month of January.

A new comprehensive synthesis of past Arctic climates shows that temperature change is happening at a greater rate there than other places in the Northern Hemisphere. This warming is expected to continue, leading to glacier and ice-sheet melting, sea-ice retreat, coastal erosion, and sea level rise. An increasingly ice-free Arctic ocean raises the possibility of increased activity and necessitates new considerations in international cooperation among Arctic nations. Just before leaving office, outgoing President Bush released security directives about American military, economic, and diplomatic priorities in the region. A new Canadian documentary explores the activities of Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, and others to explore, map, and assert control over the area.

Climate change in the Arctic may also contribute to the advance of the treeline into areas previously characterized as tundra, the subject of a large-scale research effort in Canada.

Antarctica, too, is warming, despite a longstanding belief that a large part of the continent was cooling. A new study indicates that on average, the continent is warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the world even though East and West Antarctica are warming at different rates.

The melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland has the potential to raise sea level, but models and studies have suggested a wide range of possible increases. A new study using past climate records from annual growth rings of trees and ice cores suggests that the ocean could rise one meter within the next 100 years, three times higher than predictions from the IPCC report. Researchers explain that ice sheets have been observed to react to warming much more quickly than believed just a few years ago, and that studies from the ice age confirm that such rapid melting is possible.

Scientists are also finding new ways to collect data and improve climate models. Researchers have recently reported that bacterial levels in ice cores vary in response to climate conditions, a finding that might add a new and unique indicator to the physical and chemical benchmarks currently used. Over the next three years, a series of five flights of the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations mission will allow for global, real-time sampling of greenhouse gases across a wide range of altitudes in the atmosphere and in some of the world’s most inaccessible regions. In Antarctica, NASA and the National Science Foundation have successfully launched a new super pressure balloon prototype that will enable new high-altitude scientific research. The final product will be a 22 million cubic foot balloon that can carry a one-ton instrument to an altitude of more than 110,000 feet. Using such a balloon costs much less than a satellite, and allows for retrieval and re-use of the scientific instruments.

 Climate change’s effect on polar bears has been well publicized, and now it seems that Antarctica’s iconic species may also be in jeopardy. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used mathematical models to predict the effect of climate change on emperor penguin populations. The models predict that sea ice continues to decline at the rates published in the latest IPCC report, the median population size of a large emperor penguin colony will likely shrink from 3,000 to 400 breeding pairs by the end of the century. This type of decline would put the population at serious risk of extinction.

Finally, researchers analyzing temperature data have noted that the seasons have shifted nearly two days earlier. The scientists explain that the difference between summer and winter land temperatures has decreased over a 50-year period, and that peak summer and low winter temperatures occur earlier in the calendar year. More research is needed to explain this shift, though researchers say that human-generated greenhouse gases may be a cause.

Know of another significant news story from January that you’d like to share? Reactions to one of the stories discussed here?  Post a comment-we’d love to hear from you!

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 minutes on one or more days of the event, or longer if they choose to. They then report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org.

A section of the web site is prepared for children with counting instructions, a checklist of birds that live in a region, games and quizzes, and science stories. In addition to entering their tallies, participants may submit digital images for a photo contest. Many photos will be featured in an online gallery.

Polar birds are the subject of the February issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology assisted in the production of this issue. You’ll find literacy and science activities for K-5 classrooms centered on the birds in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

In early January, a coalition of more than 500 universities, K-12 schools, educators, scientific societies, science centers and museums, government agencies, advocacy groups, and others kicked off the Year of Science, or YoS2009. The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) expects this yearlong recognition, with events scheduled across the country, will engage the public and inform it about science.

COPUS is sponsored by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Geological Society of America, the National Science Teachers Association, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

The sponsors and other participants will host events in all 50 states. The YoS09 web site, http://www.yearofscience2009.org/home/ ,offers updates on events and continuing coverage of the celebration.

Each month will focus on a specific scientific theme — evolution, energy resources, oceans and water, astronomy, and so forth. Theme-related resources, including video clips, interviews with scientists, ways to become involved (citizen science projects), are available at http://www.yearofscience2009.org/themes/

A new web site called Understanding Science: How Science Really Works is a project of the University of California Museum of Paleontology and is the result of collaboration among scientists, teachers, designers, and web experts. The goal is to improve teacher understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise and provide resources and strategies for teaching the nature of science. It offers many resources for teachers, students, and the general public. (A downloadable, one-page handout for publicizing YoS09 is found at http://www.yearofscience2009.org/themes_process_nature/YoS09JanuaryOnePage.pdf .)

Francis Eberle, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, writes in NSTA Reports that science educators “now have a rare opportunity to show an interested public how science explores what is not understood and how it impacts all of our lives.”

Sign up at http://www.copusproject.org/signup.php for email news about the coalition and the Year of Science.

An exceptional polar expedition in an era of daring explorations of the far north and far south is featured in the January 2009 National Geographic magazine, “1,000 Days in the Ice.” The explorer, Fridtjof Nansen of Norway, was a neuroscientist, zoologist, artist, writer, and national hero, following his crossing of Greenland on skis, before he decided to be the first person to reach the North Pole. He believed he could arrive there by allowing his ship to be frozen in Arctic seas and drift with the currents east to west.  

Nansen designed a steam-powered, wooden schooner, named Fram, to withstand Arctic ice and provide safety and some comfort for the scientist and his crew — electric arc lights powered by a windmill on deck, an automatic organ, a 600-volume library, and provisions for five years. The expedition took three years,1893 to 1896.

In the second year of his journey, Nansen realized that drifting on the Fram would not take them to the pole. With one crew member he set out on a harrowing journey by kayak, skis, and sleds across sea ice. He went further north than any explorer before him, but he did not reach the pole. However, from his observations and scientific readings of the ice and waters he crossed, he established that the Arctic was an ocean, not, as previously thought, a shallow sea.

Readers of the article in print or online will appreciate one of the scientist’s many skills — photographer. Reproduced in the magazine are photos of the Fram frozen in ice, with the windmill in sight, crew members on deck, and Nansen taking readings of the water temperature. There is also a shot of the crew posing with Nansen and his sled dogs before he began his trek on the ice.

The explorer-scientist and his crew returned separately but safely some three years after they set off. Nansen went on to continue his writing and his scientific work, to become Norway’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and a high commissioner for refugees of the League of Nations, and to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

The well-designed Fram took Roald Amundsen to Antarctica in 1911 for his first journey to the South Pole. (The ship’s name was the title for a play about Nansen by Tony Harrison, which was produced in London’s National Theatre in 2008.)

Also in the January issue is the saga of two adventurers who recently followed miles of Nansen’s route over sea ice. With better cameras and color film, they can show what it is and was like to travel on Arctic ice, meeting some polar bears along the way.

We’re proud to announce the newest addition to the Beyond Penguins project: a monthly podcast series!

Each month, join hosts Robert Payo and Stephanie Chasteen as they discuss misconceptions, teaching activities, and the latest news related to the poles. The podcasts are designed to accompany the current month’s issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears magazine.

Here are some ways to use the podcasts in your teaching:

1. Listen to learn new teaching ideas and build your science content knowledge.

2. Have older students listen, write, and discuss episodes or segments of episodes as a way of integrating science and literacy activities

3. Inform your school librarian to include these in your school’s audio collection

4. Share on your classroom web pages for families or with your friends!

To listen, click on the “Audio MP3″ buttons:

A Walk Through the Earth: Volcanoes and Earthquakes

A Walk Through the Earth: Volcanoes and Earthquakes

Our first podcast was created to accompany our December issue – Issue 9: Earth’s Changing Surface. Eric Muller, science educator for the Exploratorium Teacher Institute in San Francisco, CA, provides a hands-on, “feet-on” way of teaching about volcanoes and the layers of the Earth.

Why Polar Bears Don’t Eat Penguins 

Why Polar Bears Don’t Eat Penguins

Episode 2 features Dr. Ross MacPhee, curator and researcher at the American Museum of Natural History.  MacPhee discusses polar mammals, their adaptations, and current means of studying mammals in the field. This episode accompanies our January issue – Issue 10: Polar Mammals.

Birdwatcher’s Delight: Birds and Inquiry Learning

Birdwatcher’s Delight: Birds and Inquiry Learning

This podcast accompanies our upcoming February issue – Issue 11: Arctic and Antarctic Birds. Listen to sound recordings from an Arctic expedition, and learn how to use citizen science projects to promote inquiry-based learning in the classroom.

You can find all of the podcasts in the NSDL section of iTunes U: Beyond Campus or linked within individual magazine issues. We’ll also be adding a separate podcast page to the magazine in the near future. Look for links on the Beyond Penguins home page and in the header!

We hope you enjoy the series!

Like the other six continents, Antarctica is warming.

A new study using satellite measurements as well as temperature records from weather stations shows that from 1957 to 2006, temperatures across the continent increased on average 0.2 degrees F per decade. This increase is comparable to warming around the world.

Not all parts of Antarctica are warming at the same rate. West Antarctica, including the Antarctic Peninsula that stretches toward South America, has warmed more rapidly (0.3 degrees F per decade) than East Antarctica.

Studying warming in Antarctica is a complex task. The presence of the ozone hole (due to CFC emissions) since the late 1970s has actually led to cooling temperatures in East Antarctica. CFCs have been phased out and the ozone hole is expected to heal, meaning that this cooling trend may reverse. Other factors such as differences in elevation between East and West Antarctica and sea ice also influence the continent’s response to warming.

Even though they must have known they would be asked about the similarity to the title of a Beatles’ song, British researchers nevertheless painted a new robot submarine bright yellow. Denying the connection, an engineer said yellow makes it easy to spot the robot when it surfaces from under ice shelves in Antarctica. 

The seven-foot robot submarine will probe the underside of the ice at the end of the Pine Island glacier. This glacier and one alongside, the Thwaites, are moving faster than any other glaciers in Antarctica, bringing more water to the oceans than Europe’s Rhine River, according to a news article from Reuters.com. The rate of flow has quickened to 2.3 miles a year from 1.5 miles in the mid-1990s. The submarine will help scientists understand what is driving the quickening.

One theory is that a shift in deep ocean current may be bringing warmer water from the depths that melts the ice shelves. If the shelves melt, the glaciers may slide off the land more quickly, adding more water to the ocean and causing sea levels to rise. Higher sea levels could swamp low-lying Pacific islands.

The yellow submarine, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as Autosub, is powered by 5,000 D batteries. As it cruises below the surface it requires no communication from the researchers; its route has been programmed in advance. The Autosub has a top speed of 3.4 knots, a range of 250 miles, and the ability to dive to 5,800 feet. When all this exhausts its batteries, the submarine will return to the mother ship for new ones.  

Autosub is expected to make a half-dozen missions under the ice taking sonar readings and measurements of the saltiness of the water. The submarine will also tether devices to the seabed to monitor ocean temperature, salinity and currents. An earlier autosub was lost in 2005 as it investigated the underside of an ice shelf.

The British Antarctic Survey is developing the Autosub project. It is anticipated that fleets of robotic submarines could be used in the future to monitor and collect data from all the world’s oceans. Photos of the sea-going robot and a description written for students can be found at http://www.coexploration.org/bbsr/classroombats/tour/html/autosub.html

In late December near McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flight-tested a large, pumpkin-shaped, thin-skinned balloon that will someday carry science experiments to the brink of space.  

According to an NSF press release, this 7 million cubic foot balloon is the largest single-cell, super-pressure balloon ever flown. (“Super pressure” means there is a higher pressure inside the balloon than outside.) When development is completed, NASA will have a 22 million cubic foot balloon that can carry a one-ton instrument to an altitude of just over 110,000 feet — three to four times higher than passenger planes fly.

The balloon will play an important role in providing inexpensive access to near-space. With continued development, similar balloons are expected to fly for months at a time. David Pierce, chief of the balloon program office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Virginia, says, “The test flight has demonstrated that 100-day flights of large, heavy payloads is a realistic goal.”

Unique atmospheric circulation over Antarctica during the austral summer (November – March) allows scientists to launch balloons from a site near McMurdo Station and recover them from nearly the same spot weeks later. Constant daylight means no day-to-night temperature fluctuations on the balloon, which helps it stay at a nearly constant altitude.

The test balloon is made of lightweight polyethylene film about the thickness of plastic food wrap. (Find more information, pictures, and a kids’ page about the pumpkin balloon at http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code820/uldb.html.) Among the advantages of balloon-powered space research are the facts that it costs less than satellite-based research and the scientific instruments can be retrieved and used again.

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 January 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 - hope you can join us in February when we discuss the Arctic and Antarctic Birds issue.What is a mammal? And what kinds of mammals live in the polar regions? This issue, co-produced with the American Museum of Natural History, explores the mammals of the polar regions and the adaptations that help them survive in harsh environments.

Let’s go to the January issue:

http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=January2009

You’ll see that we have five departments and then columns within each department. By the way – all issues are laid out the same way.

Let’s go to the department Professional Learning and click on the Science Content Knowledge link – you’ll get to the article “What Is a Mammal? Answers from Ross MacPhee.” (http://tinyurl.com/9ajotl)

This article is based on an interview with Ross MacPhee, a researcher and curator at the American Museum of Natural History. Take a minute to scan the article. Do you see anything interesting?

We’ll come back to the Professional Learning department in a bit. First, let’s learn about MacPhee’s research.

Go back to the issue page:

http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=January2009

and go to the In the Field: Scientists at Work department. Click on the Researcher Stories link – you’ll get to the article “What Killed the Mammoths? Ross MacPhee Looks for Answers.” (http://tinyurl.com/868taj) Take a minute to skim this article. In MacPhee’s opinion, what killed the woolly mammoths?

Now let’s click on the column “Misconceptions” in the Professional Learning department. (http://tinyurl.com/9×4zvz)

Scroll down to the misconceptions about Polar Mammals. Have you heard any of these before?

Of course, we also have lessons to use with your students. Let’s take a look at the “Lessons and Activities” article in the Science and Literacy department (http://tinyurl.com/8z76bu). Spend a few minutes looking at the breadth of activities – then report back on one that you find interesting.

We also have a bookshelf in the Science and Literacy department (http://tinyurl.com/9jsk6u). Are you familiar with any of these titles?

We also write our own informational texts for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 students that go along with the theme of each issue of the magazine. They come in text, illustrated, and electronic versions. When you click on the Feature Story link (http://tinyurl.com/87ej8o) and scroll through the document, you’ll see the text of the feature story, illustrated and printable versions, and then electronic versions of the story.

Our Feature Story, “White Wolf,” introduces students to the life of an arctic wolf. Associated templates at the end of the article help you assess students’ listening comprehension skills. Learn more about listening comprehension in the Literacy Content Knowledge article in the Professional Learning department (http://tinyurl.com/8n8gxp).

All the informational texts can be found by clicking on the Stories for Students link in the header - http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/information.php?topic=stories. Click on the link and look a few of the stories. Which ones do you think your students would like?

Go back to the January issue page:

http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/index.php?date=January2009

and spend a few minutes looking at the other columns that we didn’t go to.

You can see that there is a lot of other content that we didn’t cover! Hope you enjoy exploring the rest of the issue.

The January issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine is now available!

Polar Mammals was co-produced with the American Museum of Natural History, and includes a wide range of engaging and informative content!

Do you want to know more about polar mammals and the adaptations that help them survive in these cold environments? This month’s Science Content Knowledge article includes excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ross MacPhee, researcher and curator at the American Museum of Natural History. Check out these enhanced podcasts, which are also part of the article:

What is a Mammal?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/0jw74pfWfxA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

What Kinds of Mammals Do You Find in the Arctic?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/h_oHNP50FGM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

What Adaptations Enable Mammals to Live in a Polar Environment?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/3_3p2ylZDAE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Read about Dr. MacPhee’s research about woolly mammoths in our Reseacher Stories article.

Of course, this issue also includes lessons and activities, misconceptions and tools for formative assessment, a virtual bookshelf, and informational text written for students. Use the Feature Story, “White Wolf,” as a read-aloud and help your students improve their listening comprehension skills by using templates specifically created for use with the article.

Much more awaits you at Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears…check out Polar Mammals today!