Education / Outreach

All three episodes of IDP’s latest Virtual Field Lab (VFL), Sea Level Rise and Thwaites Glacier: Vital Signs of the Doomsday Glacier, are now available. In the VFL, Dr. Richard and Dr. Karen Alley take students to Antarctica to analyze the stability of Thwaites Glacier. Three vital signs (the speed of the glacier over the last 20 years, the changing size of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf, and the number of crevasses on the Eastern Ice Shelf over the last 20 years) are examined throughout the series to assess how this glacier may single-handedly impact future predictions of sea level rise.

The Virtual Field Labs are unique interactive education and outreach products designed for students from late middle school to college. The labs are designed for students to watch with a teacher present (virtually or in-person) or independently on their computers. Each Virtual Field Lab takes students along with a climate scientist as they collect and analyze data to answer a different climate question. There are currently five Virtual Field Labs, each containing three video episodes. Visit the Virtual Field Labs webpage for a description of each lab.

The IDP-sponsored Climate of HOPE conference was held on March 1, 2024. The workshop was held at Downers North High School in DuPage County, IL, where a unique county-wide in-service day occurs each spring. Four hundred DuPage County middle and high school science teachers attended the conference. The goal of the Climate of HOPE conference was to bring a combination of cutting-edge climate research and engaging classroom-ready activities to Illinois science teachers. The conference explored the confluence of inquiry, climate science, and evolution as they relate to our rapidly changing planet. IDP invited three keynote speakers, Dr. Richard Alley (Penn State), Frank Niepold (NOAA Climate Program Office), and Dr. Alden Adolph (St. Olaf College), and organized seven break-out sessions featuring three Train the Trainers Workshop participants and IDP engineer Jay Johnson and IDP Director of Operations Krissy Slawny from IDP at the University Wisconsin-Madison. Other workshop sponsors included the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), DuPage County Regional Office of Education (DROE), and Illinois Science Teachers Association (ISTA).

In IDP’s latest Virtual Field Lab, Sea Level Rise and Thwaites Glacier: Vital Signs of the Doomsday Glacier, Dr. Richard and Dr. Karen Alley take students to Antarctica to analyze the stability of Thwaites Glacier. Vital signs are taken using satellite imagery to see how much sea levels may rise in the future. Two lab episodes are available on the icedrill-education.org website, and a third episode will be released soon. 

The Virtual Field Labs are unique interactive education and outreach products designed for students from late middle school to college. The labs are designed for students to watch with a teacher present (virtually or in-person) or independently on their computers. Each Virtual Field Lab takes students along with a climate scientist as they collect and analyze data to answer a different climate question. There are currently five Virtual Field Labs, each containing three video episodes. Visit the Virtual Field Labs webpage for a description of each lab.

The results of the pilot Train the Trainers Workshop held last summer at the NSF Ice Core Facility in Denver, CO, have been very exciting. Seven participants have already planned outreach activities that broadened IDP education and outreach impact. In addition, about half of the fifteen participants have either completed a professional development outreach project or have one planned.

The third Ice Core Early-Career Researchers Workshop (ICECReW) will be held on May 14 and 15, 2024, at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine, ahead of the US Ice Core Open Science Meeting (May 15-17). ICECReW is an opportunity for early-career researchers to meet and discuss ice-related science. The theme of this year’s workshop is exploring career opportunities within and outside of academia. The workshop will focus on developing and receiving feedback on application materials such as CVs, research statements, teaching statements, and cover letters.

ICECReW is intended for early-career researchers whose work contributes to polar sciences or paleoclimatology. We broadly define “early career” as someone within three years of PhD (before or after completion), although exceptions are certainly possible.

Please join the Hercules Dome mailing list to ensure you receive all the meeting announcements.

More details for the workshop will be announced in early 2024. We anticipate supporting the cost of an additional two nights’ lodging for US participants. Travel to/from the US Ice Core Science Meeting may be partially supported depending on need.

The deadline for submitting the ICECReW application is February 9, 2024.

Dates: May 14-15, 2024
Location: Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, Maine
Application (deadline February 9, 2024): (the application period is now closed)
Convener: NSF Hercules Dome Ice Core Project
Organizing Committee: Ursula Jongebloed, Julia Andreasen, Drake McCrimmon, Jacob Chalif, T.J. Fudge, and Bess Koffman
ICECReW website: https://herculesdome.org/icecrew-2024

A Perspective article published in Nature Geoscience tackles the longstanding issue of gender representation in science, focusing on the field of ice core science. Prior work has shown that despite progress toward gender parity over the past fifty years, women continue to be significantly underrepresented within the discipline of Earth sciences and receive disproportionately fewer opportunities for recognition, such as invited talks, awards, and nominations. This lack of opportunity can have long-term negative impacts on women’s careers. To help address these persistent gender gaps, the study evaluates patterns related to women’s publication in ice core science over the past fifty years. The study was co-led by Bess Koffman of Colby College, USA, and Matthew Osman of Cambridge University, UK, and coauthored by Alison Criscitiello and Sofia Guest, both of the University of Alberta, Canada.

To assess relationships among gender, publication rate, and impact of coauthor networks, the study evaluates a comprehensive, global dataset of abstracts representing published work in ice core science spanning 1969 to 2021 in this historically male-dominated discipline. The Perspective article shows that the inferred gender gap in ice core science has declined from roughly 10:90% women:men in the 1970’s to ~30:70% in the past decade. Contrasting with prior work across the sciences, the authors find that women’s and men’s coauthor networks have remained similarly sized and been similarly cited through time. This finding may reflect the high degree of international cooperation and the large collaborative teams that are typical of the field of ice core science.

Importantly, the gender makeup of coauthors differs substantially for man vs. woman-led studies. Strikingly, within the past decade, woman-led studies have contained on average 20% more women coauthors than man-led studies, a difference found to be even greater in earlier decades. Moreover, since the early 2000s, the analysis shows that women have out-performed by about 8% their estimated proportion within the ice core community in terms of publishing first-authored papers. The new analysis by Koffman, Osman, and colleagues suggests that senior women in particular catalyze women’s participation in publishing, and that collaboration between women can help close gender gaps in science.

This collaborative effort by the authors emerged from the first Ice Core Early Career Researchers Workshop (ICECReW).

Registrations are now open for middle school and high school teachers in DuPage County, IL, to join us for the IDP, in partnership with Downers Grove North High School and the Regional Office of Ed, Climate of HOPE (How Our Planet is Evolving) conference. The conference will be held on March 1, 2024, at Downers North High School as part of the countywide professional development day. For additional information, visit https://sites.google.com/view/2024scienceinstitute/home.

Two of IDP’s 2023 Train the Trainers workshop participants, Susan Rubert and Marc VanKeuren, are presenting IDP’s newest Virtual Field Lab featuring Drs. Karen and Richard Alley at the Fall 2023 AGU Meeting on Tuesday, 12 December 2023. Virtual Field Labs are unique interactive education and outreach products designed for students from late middle school to college. Virtual Field Labs are designed for students to watch with a teacher present (virtually or in-person) or independently on their own computers. Each Virtual Field Lab takes students along with a climate scientist as they collect and analyze data to answer a different climate question.

Title: ED23A-07. Virtual Field Labs: Facilitated Investigations for Middle School to College Students Led by Climate Scientists
Date: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
Time: 15:20 – 15:30 PST
Location: MC, 203 - South
AGU Link: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm23/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1325529

IDP piloted its Virtual Field Lab (VFL) Train the Trainers workshop at the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility July 26-28 with fifteen in-person participants and one on Zoom due to COVID. Evaluation responses indicated that 100% felt they understood the VFLs and had gained a solid understanding of ice core and climate science. Three participants have already submitted an AGU abstract, while four others are tentatively planning to present at the Climate of HOPE conference next spring.

The IDP School of Ice took place at Dartmouth College June 18-22 with twelve participants. Evaluation responses suggest an overwhelmingly successful workshop; participants learned about ice core and climate science and intend to incorporate what they learned in their work. In the post-workshop evaluation, participants reported that many aspects of the workshop were impactful.

IDP’s education and outreach program is leading a professional development climate change science day in partnership with the DuPage County Regional Office of Education (Wheaton, Illinois), the National Center for Science Education, Downers Grove North High School, and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) on March 1, 2024, in DuPage County, Illinois. The Climate of HOPE Conference will bring a combination of cutting-edge climate research and engaging classroom-ready activities to Illinois science teachers.

Tentatively, speakers include Dr. Richard Alley (Penn State) and Dr. Karen Alley (University of Manitoba), Anne Reid (Executive Director at National Center for Science Education), and Frank Niepold (Senior Climate Education Coordinator at NOAA’s Climate Program Office) along with break-out sessions led by IDP educators and other partners.

400+ middle and high school science educators are expected to attend during the DuPage County-wide Inservice Day. The conference is open to educators in surrounding areas who would like to attend.

Questions? Contact IDP Director of Education & Public Outreach Louise Huffman at louise.t.huffman@dartmouth.edu.

Conference website coming soon.

Two workshops are planned for Summer 2023: School of Ice at Dartmouth in June and Virtual Field Labs - Training the Trainers at the NSF Ice Core Facility in Denver in July.

William (Bill) Grosser has been hired by IDP as an Education Outreach Specialist with a focus on developing new resources like the Virtual Field Labs and hands-on science labs for educators. He is also integral to co-facilitating the professional development workshops. Bill is a National Board-Certified educator, a Golden Apple Fellow, Radio Shack Technology Award winner, and taught high school chemistry and physical science. He also was the administrator/facilitator for the Golden Apple Inquiry Science Workshops for inner city Chicago and Elgin K-12 teachers and a curriculum resource developer for Flynn Scientific. Welcome, Bill!

Visit the IDP Education and Outreach website for activities and resources for educators, students, and the interested public.

If you are preparing a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal that includes any kind of support from IDP, you must include a Letter of Support from IDP in the proposal. If your fieldwork requires support from the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP), you should include a Letter of Support from IDP in the pre-proposal Concept Outline (see NSF 23-509 for more details) .

Researchers are asked to provide IDP with a detailed support request three weeks prior to the date the Letter of Support is required. Early submissions are strongly encouraged.

Scientists who seek to include IDP education and outreach activities associated with U.S. ice coring or drilling science projects should contact Louise Huffman at Louise.T.Huffman@Dartmouth.edu during their proposal preparation stage.

For additional information on requesting IDP support, visit our website at https://icedrill.org/requesting-field-support or contact us at IceDrill@Dartmouth.edu.

Virtual Field Labs are unique interactive education and outreach products designed for students from late middle school to college. The Virtual Field Labs are designed for students to watch with a teacher present (virtually or in-person) or independently on their computers. Each Virtual Field Lab takes students along with a climate scientist as they collect and analyze data to answer a different climate question.

IDP has two new Virtual Field Labs! The first Virtual Filed Lab, Climate Warnings from Alaska, by Dr. Dom Winksi, explores how snowfall and snow melt events have changed since fossil fuels became the dominant fuel source for humans. The second Virtual Field Lab, Comparing Climate Change Past and Present, by Dr. Carly Peltier and Jon Edwards, explores what climate change was like in the Earth’s past and then compares rates of climate change in the Earth’s past to the changes in climate we are experiencing today.

The Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) is excited to announce that applications are OPEN for the Summer 2023 COLDEX Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program!

During the COLDEX REU experience, your students will work with ice core scientists and researchers to answer questions that will help in our mission to find the oldest ice in Antarctica and make important contributions to our understanding of Earth’s climate history.

Applications are open to current undergraduate students. Due to NSF funding, participants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Note: this REU does not include travel to Antarctica.

Student participants will receive a $6,000 stipend over the course of 10 weeks (from June - August 2023). Students will be placed in a COLDEX laboratory, with full funding for travel to and from the host institution. Students will also be funded to present their research at the COLDEX annual meeting in Corvallis, Oregon, September 6 - 7, 2023.

Find out more about the COLDEX REU program and apply at coldex.org/reu or apply here: https://oregonstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_daK395aMKNqqLCm?jfefe=new

Applications are due February 1, 2023, at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.

For questions about the REU program, contact Dr. Kristen Rahilly at kristen.rahilly@oregonstate.edu.

Check out these two IDP resources for education that have recently been selected for inclusion in the CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) digital collection of high-quality resources that address climate and energy-related topics:

• Land Ice/Sea Ice/Grounded ice: How does melting ice affect sea level?
• The Stink Test: Validating Resources

Digital educational resources selected for the CLEAN Collection are aligned with the Climate Literacy Essential Principles or Energy Awareness Principles and passed through an extensive peer-review process to verify the accuracy and currency of the science.

In 2022, the US National Science Foundation, via the Ice Drilling Program, funded a workshop for US early-career researchers to become more involved in the ice-core community. The Ice Core Early Career Researchers Workshop (ICECReW) was held January 5-8, 2022, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online. Participants met with established researchers to better understand outcomes of and resources available from past ice core projects, learn about opportunities to engage with future efforts, and connect with potential collaborators. Participants also produced the following series of articles, published in Past Global Changes Magazine, to help communicate ice core science to undergraduate students and ice core-adjacent researchers:

• Editorial: Early-career perspectives on ice-core science
• From drilling to data: retrieval, transportation, analysis, and long-term storage of ice-core samples
• Putting the time in time machine: Methods to date ice cores
• Our frozen past: ice-core insights into earth’s climate history
• Ice-core records of atmospheric composition and chemistry
• Fire trapped in ice: An introduction to biomass burning records from high-alpine and polar ice cores
• Ice-core records of human impacts on the environment
• The living record: considerations for future biological studies of ice cores
• Firn: Applications for the interpretation of ice-core records and estimation of ice-sheet mass balance
• What can deep ice, water, sediments, and bedrock at the ice–bed interface tell us?
• Ice-core constraints on past sea-level change

In a time when evidence-based information is questioned, it is imperative to teach students how to recognize whether a source is valid or not. The Stink Test, a resource for teaching students how to validate sources, has been recently updated by IDP and is bringing new traffic to the IDP education and outreach website. The Stink Test activity was downloaded 131 times in July after being presented at the NOAA/Climate Generation Summer Institute. By practicing the elements of the STINK Test, students build both background knowledge as well as the skills necessary to be a discerning consumer of information.

IDP has also recently updated the Reflection Activities classroom resource, which contains ideas for encouraging students to reflect on their learning before, during, or after a unit or lesson.

Thirty-two international educators met in Hofn, Iceland, for the Polar Educators’ International (PEI) 5th international conference. At the conference, IDP EPO Director Louise Huffman presented a new IDP hands-on lab, Snowflake Science, and Dr. Erich Osterberg’s Abrupt Climate Disruptions Virtual Field Lab. Huffman also invited Drs Peter Neff, Ed Brook, Heidi Roop, and Knut Christianson to speak at the PEI conference and organized topics and talks with the four speakers.

During the second quarter, IDP made the difficult decision to move the Dartmouth School of Ice scheduled for June 2022 to summer 2023 because of growing concern about a COVID resurgence. The concern included the possibility that groups on Dartmouth’s campus could be limited in the summer.

The first annual US Ice Core Open Science Meeting will be held May 24-26, 2022, at the beautiful Scripps Seaside Forum at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. It will also be possible to attend online.

This meeting is intended for anyone interested in ice core science or related fields, including ice-core analysis, ice or subglacial drilling, glacier geophysics that supports or depends on ice core records, paleoclimate, and contemporary climate and ice sheet change. Goals of the meeting include 1) sharing of the latest science, 2) discussion of future ice core science projects in both the polar regions and in alpine environments, 3) providing career development opportunities, and 4) improving communication about ice-core and related science both within and beyond the scientific community. We hope to attract a diverse group of participants, including those who may not have extensive experience working with ice cores. While this meeting is primarily oriented toward researchers in the US, international attendees are welcome.

The meeting will begin the morning of Tuesday, May 24, and end by early afternoon Thursday, May 26, followed by the annual meeting of the US Ice Core Working Group.

Join the Hercules Dome mailing list to ensure you do not miss announcements: https://herculesdome.org/get-involved.

Deadlines:

• March 21: Please register by this date to be considered for early career financial support
• April 15: Registration deadline
• April 29: Deadline to book a hotel at the group rate

Registration:

For those attending in person, there is a $100 registration fee. There is limited financial support for early career attendees; if you wish to be considered for this support, please register by March 21. The registration deadline is April 15. The late registration fee is $200.

To register, complete the registration form at https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/steig/419153.

To pay for the registration fee, please first complete and submit the registration form, and then go to the payment portal at the University of California-Irvine.

Venue and Lodging:

The meeting will be held at the Scripps Seaside Forum at the Scripps Instituion of Oceanography, May 24-26, 2022. We have reserved a block of rooms at La Jolla Shores Hotel and the adjacent La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, both within walking distance of the meeting. Individual attendees should make their own reservations directly with the Hotel Reservations Department at 866 976-6659. Please refer to the Antarctic Ice Core Meeting when making reservations. Rooms range from $219 Beach & Tennis Club to $239 or $289 per night at La Jolla Shores. All rooms are double occupany (that is, the per person cost is $110 to $145 per night if you share a room). Please book by April 29 to ensure you get the contract rate.

Organizing Committee:

This meeting is jointly organized by representatives and leaders of the Hercules Dome Ice Core Project, the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, the US Ice Drilling Program, and the Juneau Icefield Research Program. The organizing committee is Eric Steig, Sarah Aarons, Seth Campbell, TJ Fudge, and Heidi Roop.

Meeting Website:

For additional information, visit the meeting website at: https://herculesdome.org/us-ice-core-open-science-meeting

If you are preparing a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal that includes any kind of support from IDP, you must include a Letter of Support from IDP in the proposal.

Researchers are asked to provide IDP with a detailed support request three weeks prior to the date the Letter of Support is required. Early submissions are strongly encouraged.

Scientists who seek to include IDP education and outreach activities associated with U.S. ice coring or drilling science projects should contact Louise Huffman at Louise.T.Huffman@Dartmouth.edu during their proposal preparation stage.

For further information on requesting IDP support, visit our website at https://icedrill.org/requesting-field-support or contact us at IceDrill@Dartmouth.edu.

IDP led another highly successful School of Ice (SOI) on July 31-August 4, 2021, at Oregon State University in partnership with Dr. Ed Brook. The SOI provides professional development workshops for faculty from minority-serving institutions, training participants to understand paleoclimate evidence derived from ice cores. It also provides participants with the opportunities and training to acquire the skills necessary to bring this exciting inquiry into new and existing Earth and environmental science classes on their campuses.

Eleven OSU researchers, an IDP engineer, and eight graduate students shared their research and expertise with this year’s SOI participants. In addition, two educators led participants through hands-on inquiry labs that will be used in current and future courses back at their home institutions. Dr. Brook led two field trips related to course content. One trip was to the Oregon coast, where participants observed evidence of past sea level rise, ocean acidification, and fossil evidence of climate from 23 to 5 million years ago. A second field trip was to an overlook near Mt. Hood to observe evidence of the retreat of Elliott Glacier.

Learn more about SOI and other Ice Drilling Program education and outreach opportunities at http://icedrill-education.org/school-of-ice/.

Virtual Field Labs are unique interactive Education & Outreach products of the US Ice Drilling Program designed for students from late middle school to college. Virtual Field Labs are designed for students to watch with a teacher present (virtually or in-person) or independently on their own computers. Each Virtual Field Lab takes students along with a climate scientist as they collect and analyze data to answer a different climate question. Virtual Field Labs are designed to engage students in active note-taking, building data tables, sketching, graphing, calculating, and analyzing. Active participation will produce student artifacts designed to be easily checked by the teacher, and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are emphasized throughout each lab. Two Virtual Field Labs are available now, and a third lab is coming soon. For more information, visit the Virtual Field Labs webpage.

Because of COVID-19, the decision was made to translate the School of Ice 2020 to a virtual model from the original residential professional development activity planned for Dartmouth’s campus. The workshop took place on June 28-July 1. A highlight video was created. The IDP EO outside evaluator has completed the evaluation report. To meet the needs of educators who have to teach virtually, IDP created a new series of “Virtual Field Labs” that were introduced during School of Ice. They will soon be widely available to high school and college teachers for use this fall. Working with educator Bill Grosser and Drs. Erich Osterberg, Meredith Kelly, and David Harwood, each Virtual Field Lab features a scientist, a student-generated data activity, and a connection to an important climate change concept like abrupt climate change, sea level rise, and using today’s geology to understand how ice sheets retreat. These will be available soon on http://icedrill-education.org.

The IDP Education and Outreach website provides educational activities and labs that highlight ice science and engineering. One of the new activities created, entitled Engineering Challenge: Designing a Portable Drilling Rig, challenges students to build a portable drill rig capable of retrieving ice cores. The activity also includes a short video for teachers that provides an overview of the engineering design challenge and also features IDP engineer Grant Boeckmann. The Designing a Portable Drilling Rig engineering design challenge is one of many educational labs and activities available on the IDP Education and Outreach website.

For the first time, IDP sponsored a booth at AGU to reach more people than was possible at past Town Hall meetings. The booth allowed us to spend time talking with people interested in ice science and several surprise audiences were well represented besides scientists: educators wanting ideas for teaching about ice core research and climate change; undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning about research possibilities and careers; and early career scientists exploring options. It was a dynamic, exhilarating (and exhausting!) week.

In addition, Louise Huffman, Erich Osterberg, and educator Bill Grosser presented a workshop at the GIFT (Geophysical Information for Teachers) conference at AGU. Two new hands-on ice science labs were facilitated, and Erich followed the activities with an interactive talk. Feedback has been very positive. Louise also chaired two oral and two poster sessions and delivered an invited talk and an education and outreach poster.

Louise Huffman and several School of Ice teachers collaborated with Geoff Hargreaves of the NSF Ice Core Facility to present an interactive community event at the TEDxMileHigh summer event in Denver, CO, on June 22, 2019. The TEDx  was a full-day event with a reported 3000 visitors. Hundreds visited the ice core display, and many stayed to ask detailed questions.

Louise Huffman spoke to the Women's Cultural Alliance (WCA) at the Naples (FL) Daily News Office Community Room on February 6, 2019. She presented ice core science and why it is important, especially for those living in Florida, to an audience of 50 men and women.

Planning the June School of Ice in Denver continues. Huffman traveled to Colorado to meet with representatives from each of the venues: the NSF Ice Core Facility, the University of CO-Boulder/INSTAAR, and the Antarctic Support Contract. During this trip, she also held a meeting with Dr. Matt Siegfried to finalize a new hands-on inquiry lab activity based on subglacial lake science. The activity will be unveiled and tested at the School of Ice this summer before making it widely available on the icedrill-education.org website.

On November 15, 2018, Education and Outreach Director, Louise Huffman, hosted a webinar featuring Dr. T. J. Fudge (University of Washington) who presented ice core science information to 6th grade students in Nevada. Students were thoroughly engaged and asked questions for almost half an hour during and after the presentation. Dr. Fudge's time and dedication to outreach are especially appreciated given that he departed the following week for two months of field research at Hercules Dome, Antarctica.

Applications for the School of Ice to be held in Denver, CO, June 23-26, 2019, are available at https://goo.gl/ZGe7sv or contact Louise Huffman.

In June, Louise Huffman was active in the POLAR2018 meeting in Davos, Switzerland. She convened 4 education outreach (EO) sessions marking a milestone in EO sessions at science meetings where at least half of the presenters were researchers and the orals were extremely well attended, numbering between 60-90 participants for each session. This is an indication that IDPO is making headway on bridging the gap between science and education.

In addition, at the POLAR2018 conference, Louise Huffman was an invited speaker on the International Polar Year (IPY) Mini- Symposium Panel, led a workshop for polar educators, served as a mentor during an Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) event, met with International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) leadership concerning a legacy project for POLAR2018.

Dr. Zoe Courville and Louise Huffman presented IDPO workshops for educators at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, March 15-17, 2018. The two workshops included an ice core science presentation and hands-on, inquiry-driven activities for classrooms. The presentations focused on evidence-based information on common climate misconceptions, as well as how ice core science helps us understand past climate change.

IDPO Education and Public Outreach engaged over 800 visitors at the Geology Museum at Rutgers University, where visitors participated in multiple hands-on activities to learn about ice core science and the science behind challenges of working in the polar regions. This event was facilitated by the Associate Director of the Geology Museum, who had been a 2017 participant in the IDPO School of Ice workshop.

The IDPO Education and Outreach Program website (climate-expeditions.org) has undergone a complete re-design and update. It features a designated section for the School of Ice as well as many new activities, labs and resources for middle school, high school and college educators as well as a growing "public" area. The website will continue to evolve and grow with feedback from our ice core science network of educators, scientists and engineers.

On October 21, Louise Huffman and Sarah Das (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) are presenting an ice core science workshop, Cool Science Explains a Warming World, at the North American Association of Environmental Educators 46th Annual Conference.

School of Ice
From June 25-28, IDPO will host twelve faculty members from eleven different minority-serving institutions for the School of Ice workshop at Dartmouth. All travel plans for participants have been made, speakers were invited and confirmed, and materials are being prepared for the workshop.

Checking Out Your Team
Educators are invited through IDPO's www.climate-expeditions.org to take part in an activity entitled "Checking Out Your Team" which brings IDPO scientists to classrooms through an IDPO webinar. On March 16, Mindy Nicewonger from the South Pole Ice Core drilling project presented ice core research information to 115 North Carolina eighth grade students and four teachers. Louise Huffman, IDPO Director of Education & Public Outreach, led the webinar and worked with the teacher, Beverly Owens, and Mindy to directly align the presentation with eighth grade science standards.

IDDO Outreach Event
On April 1, 2017, approximately 200 visitors over a four-hour period visited IDDO in Madison, Wisconsin, and through demonstrations and hands-on activities learned about drilling and ice core science. Louise Huffman worked with Jay Johnson at IDDO, to suggest interactive activities that work with large multi-aged groups of visitors and sent IDPO pencils to give to visitors along with colorful informative bookmarks created by Anna Claussen, IDDO Field Support Manager. Several IDDO engineers participated in the well-attended event.

Polar Educators International (PEI) Workshop
Louise Huffman attended the PEI Education Meets Science: Bringing Polar Research into Classrooms workshop in Rovereto, Italy, from April 11-14. Louise presented a talk on IDPO and ice core science and led a hands-on workshop as well. Sixty-five participants attended the workshop from fifteen countries. Louise's travel expenses were paid with non-IDPO funds.

School of Ice
In May, twelve nationally selected college professors from Minority-Serving Institutions attended the second "School of Ice" held in Denver, Colorado. Senior researchers presented the latest scientific and engineering content via live and virtual presentations, while IDPO led the Leadership Team including Lockheed's Antarctic Support Contract, Polar Field Services, National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), and University of Colorado Boulder's INSTAAR also contributed to the packed four-day agenda. One of the participants from the first School of Ice contributed to the agenda by attending and leading a hands-on activity she has used successfully with the students at her institution. Created by IDPO, the project was the result of a partnership with the American Meteorological Society. Funding was provided to IDPO by Lockheed Martin.

Education and Outreach Event at Montshire Museum, Vermont
On May 11, 2016, six Dartmouth graduate students worked with IDPO Director of Education & Public Outreach Louise Huffman to plan an outreach event for the public at the Montshire Museum in Norwich, VT. Students and their parents from local school districts were invited to spend an evening exploring polar science including specific activities about ice core science. Students tried on Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear, "swam" in the Southern Ocean wearing blubber gloves, operated an ice core drill model, touched a real Greenland ice core, looked at cross polarization in ice crystals, and using "glacier goo", raced glaciers down different surfaces to explore how a glacier moves.

Summer Inquiry Science Workshops for Inner City Chicago Public School Teachers
In July, workshops for K-12 teachers who teach in high-risk Chicago public schools were held at Oak Park and River Forest High School, the University of Chicago and the Chicago Field Museum. Ice core science was incorporated into the existing curriculum. In the introductory inquiry science week, the story of how ice cores were shipped from WAIS Divide, Antarctica, to the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, CO, USA was used as the 'hook' before participants were challenged to build an "ice core shipping container" that would keep their ice core frozen with the least mass lost. In the advanced inquiry week, IDPO's Louise Huffman presented a climate change day based on ice core activities. The resources and activities were well received by the teachers. Workshops were paid for by the Golden Apple Foundation.

Teachers from across the nation were engaged in multiple IDPO educational outreach events at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Nashville, TN. Approximately 88 educators participated in several hands-on activities about ice science and climate that they can use in their classrooms.

After many highly successful years as Director of Education and Public Outreach for IDPO, Linda Morris retired on Dec 31, 2016 in order to travel and to spend more quality time with her children and grandchildren. Linda created the IDPO Education and Public Outreach program from scratch, sustaining it on a shoestring budget since the early years of IDPO existence. Her vision, personal initiative, and persistence resulted in a program that uses best practices to contribute to teacher knowledge and proficiency and public understanding of discoveries enabled by ice coring and drilling, through nation-wide partnerships for broader dissemination with the National Science Teacher Association, the American Meteorological Society, TERC, the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), and the Polar Educators International master class series, for example. Linda's leadership in establishment of the Lockheed-funded School of Ice program put climate understanding and classroom tools into the hands of faculty from under-served institutions, where they are using it with their diverse body of students. Linda's grant for a second year of the School of Ice has been funded, and will occur in May. We sincerely thank Linda for her dedication, service, and professionalism.

Louise Huffman has been hired as the new IDPO Director of Education and Public Outreach. Louise is a former classroom teacher and she served as the Chair of the Formal Education Subcommittee of the IPY-EOC. From 2007-2013, she was the ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) Coordinator of Education and Public Outreach. All IDPO projects and initiatives are continuing as planned, and new avenues are also being explored. Anyone with ideas, or who would like to become involved in IDPO EO projects, or who have specific EO needs relevant to the mission of IDPO-IDDO is welcome to contact Louise at louise.t.huffman@dartmouth.edu

May 2016 looks to be an exciting month for those seeking professional development related to the role of ice core research in climate education. In its second year, the Lockheed Martin-funded "School of Ice", developed by the U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office in partnership with the American Meteorological Society's education program, is actively seeking qualified candidates for the four day, Denver-based, residential course on ice core science. If you or your colleagues teach environmental and/or geoscience courses at a community college, undergraduate institution or university classified as a Minority-Serving Institution, this experiential week may be just for you!

The calendar dates are May 22-26, 2016. Information on course content is available from Linda Morris at linda.m.morris at dartmouth dot edu. Application materials can be accessed online at http://goo.gl/forms/HvHqFjizVy or contact Elizabeth Mills at mills at ametsoc dot org to receive them by email. Come join us!

Mary Albert gave an invited webinar to the Association of Early Polar Career Scientists (APECS) discussing: ways in which early career researchers can participate in both short term and long term science planning for science endeavors requiring ice coring or drilling; how to request ice drilling support from IDPO-IDDO; and education and outreach activities that IDPO offers for community scientists. The webinar is archived on the APECS website at https://www.apecs.is/career-resources/webinars/webinar-archive/details/10/120.html .

In June 2015, twelve nationally selected college professors from Minority-Serving Institutions attended the first in-depth "School of Ice" in Denver, Colorado. A Leadership Team including Lockheed's Antarctic Support Contract, Polar Field Services, the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research contributed to the packed four-day agenda, which highlighted the latest scientific and engineering content via live and virtual presentations from ice drilling and coring scientists and engineers. Among those who contributed content were Joe McConnell, Ed Brook, Sarah Das, Bruce Vaughn, Bob Anderson, NSIDC's Ted Scambos, Gary Clow, Jay Johnson, Seth Campbell, Laurel McFadden, Ashley Maloney, Jeff Severinghaus and Linda Morris. Evaluation of the workshop showed evidence of statistically significant increases in the professors' scientific and engineering background knowledge and pedagogical ability to instruct their students. Created by IDPO, the project was the result of a partnership with the American Meteorological Society. The initial program was highlighted in an article by the Antarctic Sun (see Empowering Educators at the School of Ice: U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office Offers Educators a Close-Up Look at Ice Core Science), and plans are underway for expanding its reach through a 2016 event. Funding was provided to IDPO by Lockheed Martin through a proposal written by Linda Morris.

Join us on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 from 6:30-8:00 EST for a National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) web seminar, presented by IDPO's Mary Albert, Alden Adolph and Linda Morris. Entitled "Fire and Ice: Snow Albedo and Our Future", the event will cover what caused the recent big Greenland ice sheet melt, and share reasons why understanding your regional albedo is important to your future. Details are available at the link below. The event is free.

Registration is required and is available at:
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NLC/webseminar53.aspx

The 2014 Fall IDPO-IDDO Media Kit is now available for download. While the Media Kit is written for the media, it is a good resource for anyone interested in learning more about IDPO-IDDO. The Media Kit can be downloaded at:
https://www.icedrill.org/news/media.shtml

A reminder for scientists who attended the WAIS Divide conference in La Jolla, this past September: To have your recent scientific results be 'front and center' in IDPO's outreach messages to teachers, television, and the public, please access the media information files, located on pp. 78-79 (pp. 80-81 if printing) of the WDC Handout on the conference thumb drive, and return the requested information to Linda Morris via fax at (603) 646-9795 or via email, at linda.m.morris at dartmouth.edu. This will help Linda to showcase knowledge of the community's many recent successes!

For everyone: Please share the following information about an upcoming National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) webinar with your education networks, and others seeking the latest information. The event is free.

SPICE Core: Investigating Past Climate at the South Pole

What's the latest in Antarctic paleo-climate research? On December 10, 2014, this web seminar, targeting educators of students in grades 7-12, will introduce participants to the nation's newest ice core expedition...SPICE Core! Investigators seeking data from the past 40,000 years are drilling a 1500 meter ice core to study chemical isotopes, tiny particles called aerosols and atmospheric gases trapped in the earth's great southern ice sheet. The goal is to investigate environmental change since the last glacial/interglacial transition. Why was the South Pole targeted? What criteria affect the specific site selection for drilling? What new kinds of technology were required? Dr. T.J. Fudge will answer your questions, and share what it's like to work in the Pole's extreme environment.

A related, video-enhanced educational activity, focusing on "Polar Science and Engineering", will be presented by Linda Morris for you to share with your students. The interactions modeled in the video between scientists and engineers will serve as the basis of a reflective activity, Drilling Back Through Time, that introduces the students in your classroom to the NGSS's "Scientific and Engineering Practices". Educational resources from the US Ice Drilling Program will be showcased.

Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT / 4:30 p.m. MT / 3:30 p.m. PT
Registration: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/NSF/webseminar6.aspx

Presenters:
Dr. T.J. Fudge, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Washington, Earth & Space Sciences
Ms. Linda M. Morris, Director of Education & Public Outreach, US Ice Drilling Program Office, Dartmouth College

For further information, contact Linda at linda.m.morris at dartmouth dot edu.

A new interactive national map and supporting materials now point students to future careers in ice coring and drilling. A presentation with tips, links to career profiles and the map can be found at http://www.climate-expeditions.org/students/links.html#hotspots

If your university conducts ice core research and you'd like to have it added to the map, please contact Linda Morris at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu

An April opportunity: Add to your outreach activities by volunteering as a scientist reviewer for IDPO's partner organization, the American Meteorological Society. AMS is seeking an expert to review the scientific content related to ice cores, within the Paleo-climate chapter of their national Climate Studies text. The text is used by professors at community college and 4-year colleges, and will be released soon in an updated, eBook format. AMS will acknowledge any review or editorial assistance provided in the Preface-Acknowledgements section. Information about the text and its associated e-Investigations, etc. is available at:
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/climateinfo/textbook.html

If you are interested, please send an email to Linda Morris immediately, at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu.

An IDPO-IDDO team will be presenting "Polar Science and Engineering: A Model for NGSS Practices" at this year's AGU annual conference, during the Geophysical Information for Teachers (GIFT) Workshop on Monday, December 9th in the Marriott Marquis Golden Gate A ballroom. Focusing on the collaborative practices which enabled the successful season of replicate coring, IDDO's Field Support Manager, Kristina Slawny, UW scientist TJ Fudge, and IDPO Education & Outreach Program Manager Linda Morris will deliver a multi-media infused presentation with related hands-on activities for K-12 educators who are registered for the two-day event. Further information on the full agenda and registration procedure is available at: http://education.agu.org/education-activities-at-agu-meetings/gift/.

Two new video resources for your use in education and outreach were recently added to IDPO-IDDO's YouTube page.

The first, "How Ice Core Drills Work", responds to requests made of, and by researchers to have materials that explain how ice core drills function. The clip demonstrates the workings of a double barrel drill design featuring footage of IDDO's Blue Ice Drill test at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH. Its narration highlights the interactions between scientific and engineering practices, as outlined in the new Next Generation Science Standards for educators.

The second, "Ice Core Processing: Discovering Earth's Climate History", features station-by-station interviews of graduate students and researchers from multiple universities involved with processing ice from the WAIS Divide ice core at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Lakewood, CO. Descriptions of investigations related to specific scientific indicators reveal the diversity of data emerging from ice core research and contribute to the larger picture of climate history and its relevance to our future.

For further information and support, please email: linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu

Linda Morris, IDPO's Education Program Manager, recently facilitated a repeat "Checking Out Your Team" videoconference featuring Spruce Schoenemann (University of Washington) with a Washington high school. Students were very enthusiastic, and, for the second year in a row, a student who is now a senior expressed interest in pursuing a career in the ice coring field. Several students gave up their lunch hour to stay online with Spruce. If you would like to learn more about how you can participate in the "Checking Out Your Team" videoconference-based activity, please contact Linda Morris at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu.

A new video was produced by IDPO from footage taken last summer at the National Ice Core Laboratory, showcasing how and by whom ice cores are processed, examples of the science that results from each type of sample, and why these discoveries are important within the global climate picture. The video will become part of a suite of media products located on the Climate Expeditions "Cool Stuff for Everyone" page.

IDPO was active in the American Geophysical Union meeting, December 3-7, 2012. Albert organized and Twickler participated in the AGU Town Hall on Scientific Drilling in the Polar Regions, an interdisciplinary event which included contributions from IDPO-IDDO (Albert), NICL (Twickler), IPICS (Brook), Oldest Ice (Severinghaus), RAID (Goodge), ANDRILL (Levy), and SCAR-PAIS (DeConto).

Linda Morris organized the AGU sessions on climate literacy challenges related to the emerging Next Generation Science Standards. Linda Morris was Lead Convener for two oral and one poster sessions at the AGU fall conference. The full day strand, entitled Climate Literacy: Preparing K-12 Students to Address Next Generation Challenges, targeted educational leaders and scientists and offered presentations by national speakers involved with the changing science standards, their role in promoting climate change education and best practices for their implementation.

The U.S. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Office has moved from Texas A&M to Ohio State University. The new website for U.S. SCAR is http://usscar.org/us-scar-home. The U.S. SCAR Office also manages the ANSWER (ANtarctic Science WEb Resource) electronic mailing list, so it too has moved to Ohio State University. Because of the move, the ANSWER mailing list is being migrated to a new system, and existing mailing list members will begin to once again receive the ANSWER News Digest in the coming weeks. For the latest information about the ANSWER mailing list, including how to post messages to it, visit: http://usscar.org/answer-news-digest

IDPO/IDDO is now on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/USIceDrillingProgram. We will be using the page to update the Facebook public audience on important announcements, news and journal articles of interest, solicitation deadlines, and interesting updates, photos and videos pertaining to IDDO drilling and field science support.

The 2012 AGU conference offers a wonderful opportunity for scientists to interact with educational leaders and learn about best practices in climate education. In collaboration with NOAA and the National Earth Science Teachers Association, IDPO is convening multiple sessions on "Climate Literacy: Preparing K-12 Students to Address Next Generation Challenges". Featuring nationally recognized speakers knowledgeable about the latest science standards and how to prepare classroom teachers to implement them effectively, two oral and one poster session are scheduled for Tuesday, December 4th. Discussion on innovative roles you can play as a scientist is welcome! Please visit the conference website for details on these sessions: ED 21D (8-10 AM), ED22B (10:20 AM-12:20 PM) and ED 23A (1:40-4 PM). For more information, please contact Linda Morris at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu

Showcase your research through the "In the News" section of IDPO's Climate Expeditions web site. To make ice core discoveries more readily available to the public, your peer-reviewed research paper will be distilled into key points summarizing its importance. Please check the examples at:
http://climate-expeditions.org/public/links.html (first two bullets, In the News)

Send your documents to Education Program Manager Linda Morris at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu for translation today!

Want to learn more about IDPO/IDDO? Check out our new Media Kit. It is written for the media, but it is a good resource for anyone interested in learning more about IDPO/IDDO.

http://icedrill.org/news/media.shtml

An emphasis on integrating engineering concepts into the soon-to-be released "Next Generation" national science standards was the inspiration for multiple teacher workshop presentations organized by IDPO Education Program Manager Linda Morris and involving IDDO WAIS Divide Lead Driller, Jay Johnson, and WAIS Divide Chief Scientist for Borehole Logging, Gary Clow. Using a highly interactive back-and-forth delivery tied to a new reflective classroom activity, the team modeled synergies between scientists and engineers as they work together to solve problems and create new science understandings. For information on how this approach might be adapted for your own outreach or to voice interest in participating in future outreach events, please contact Linda at: linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu.

For the first time NSF's Office of Polar Programs supported an exhibit booth at this conference, which offered multiple research projects the opportunity to highlight their materials under one umbrella. Graduate researchers and outreach personnel interfaced with educators over three days. The response from the teachers was extremely positive.

Linda Morris, IDPO's Education Program Manager, completed creation of a new videoconference-based curriculum called "Checking Out Your Team". This middle-to-high school classroom activity targets student climate knowledge and career interest, and prepares participants for a presentation by, and Q & A with, an ice coring scientist or engineer. The opportunity was presented to teachers at two regional NSTA conferences this fall, with a very positive response.

Testing of the associated, interactive portion of the activity with videoconference between a scientist and the remote classrooms began in early January. For a list of scientists who have volunteered for outreach and/or to become involved yourself, please visit http://icedrill.org/scientists/outreach_support.shtml.

Links to teacher instructions and student "web quest" starters for this activity can be found at:
http://www.climate-expeditions.org/educators/activities.html
and
http://www.climate-expeditions.org/students/links.html#learning

The U.S. Ice Drilling Program is now on Twitter! In addition to our IceDrill.News electronic mailing list and our RSS newsfeeds, we will now also announce all of our news, deadline reminders, meeting announcements, and requests for community feedback on science requirements for equipment under development/procurement via our Twitter account at:
https://twitter.com/US_IceDrilling

A new "Outreach Support" section for US scientists is available at www.icedrill.org. Accessed via the "For Scientists" drop-down tab, on this page you will be able to access a generic presentation for you to personalize and use (coming soon), discover how your already developed materials can be leveraged through IDPO outreach venues, ask for help with your Broader Impacts plans and find background information on educational standards and classroom practices. This location also provides an opportunity to leverage educational resources among projects and serves as a place to highlight the outreach efforts of scientists collaborating with IPDO...check out which of your colleagues have participated and join the list for upcoming opportunities!

The first quarter of this year was an active period, where multiple events that were planned last spring came to fruition.

In October, Linda Morris, Mary Albert and graduate researcher Kaitlin Keegan manned a Polar Detectives booth for two days during the US Science Festival on the DC mall, an event attended by half a million people. Albert was broadcast live talking about the significance of ice core research and Fernando Silva-Pinto, Washington correspondent for Globo International TV, interviewed Keegan.

In November, Morris presented a hands-on teachers' workshop at the National Science Teachers Association's regional conference in Baltimore. Albert stepped in to give a science presentation for Zoe Courville, who was unable to make it home from Antarctica in time. She met with an NSTA leader concerning potential integration of IDPO research into a proposal for developing formal education activities centered on the Climate Literacy Principles.

And in December, Joe McConnell and Linda Morris co-presented Hot Topics: Natural and Anthropogenic Climate Impacts as Evidenced in Ice Cores during the AGU teachers' GIFT (Geographical Information for Teachers) workshop in December. Fifty-three teachers attended the event, which was co-sponsored by AGU and the National Earth Science Teachers Association.

Linda Morris, IDPO-IDDO Education Program Manager, is holding an ice cores and climate workshop called "Climate Expeditions" at the NSTA Regional Conference in Baltimore, MD on November 12-14. Please see the NSTA website for time and location http://www.nsta.org/conferences/2010bal/. If you would like to be involved in a future NSTA conference, please contact Linda Morris at linda.m.morris@dartmouth.edu.