Relevant initiatives

Joint Science Education Project (JSEP)

Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

2007-ongoing

European

No

Didactical resource

Physics, Science

English

Teachers, Students

The Joint Committee, a high-level forum involving the Greenlandic, Danish and U.S. governments, established the Joint Science Education Project in 2007, as a collaborative diplomatic effort during the International Polar Year to:

Educate and inspire the next generation of polar scientists;
Build strong networks of students and teachers among the three countries; and
Provide an opportunity to practice language and communication skills by taking students to the ice sheet in Greenland to observe polar science in action.

The JSEP initiative is focused on polar studies and the resources it offers are divided in two: http://www.polartrec.com/ - which is a platform for polar science education and understanding for bringing teacher and polar researchers together through hands-on field experiences. Here teachers can find virtual base camp, online course, webinars, etc.
The other rich platform with reousrces is http://thepolarhub.org/ The PoLAR Hub is the official website of the Polar Learning and Responding (PoLAR) Climate Change Education Partnership. In addition to featuring the latest in polar climate science, news, and research, the Hub provides information on educational resources focused on polar climate change, including the games, activities, and other innovative tools developed by the PoLAR Partnership. The resources on the polar hub include videos, curricula, online interactive tools, digital games, analog games, publications. They are searchable by topic (like for example sea level, climate change, temperature rising, etc.)

It is an initiative that offers access to a lot of materials. It is highly appreciable the fact that teachers that deal with polar sciences in school have the chance to connect with researchers trough the polartec platform. A very good side of the initiative is that it offers also a lot of materials that can be directly used in the classroom with students (games, visualizations, etc.)

What is interesting in this project is the access to a lot of resources that can be used by students themselves. There are a lot of games and despite all the resources are in English it is not very difficult to understand the concept.