Meeting Announcement and Call for Abstracts: Lessons from Continuity and Change in the Fourth International Polar Year Date: 4-7 March 2009 Location: University of Alaska Fairbanks Deadline for abstract submission: 15 November 2008 Deadline for early registration: 31 December 2008 The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the Inland Northwest Research Alliance (INRA) are now accepting abstracts and registration for their co-hosted symposium, Lessons from Continuity and Change in the Fourth International Polar Year, to be held 4-7 March 2009 at UAF. Oral and poster presentation abstracts should be submitted via the symposium website by 15 November 2008. Accepted presentations will be programmed into thematic...

Now Accepting Applications - PolarTREC Teachers 2009/2010 Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. Teacher Application Deadline: Monday, 29 September 2008 For further information, please go to: http://www.polartrec.com Or contact: Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Phone: 907-474-1600 -------------------- The PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) program is currently accepting teacher applications for the third year of teacher research experiences. Teachers are invited to submit an application to participate in field research learning experiences during the 2009 (Arctic) or 2009-2010 (Antarctic) f...

A 150-meter ice core pulled from the McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this summer may offer researchers their first quantitative look at up to two centuries of climate change in the region. The core, which is longer than 1 1/2 football fields, is the longest extracted from an arctic glacier in the United States, according to Matt Nolan, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Northern Engineering who has led research at McCall Glacier for the past six years. The sample spans the entire depth of the glacier and may cover 200 years of history, he said. “What we hope is that the climate record will extend back into the Little Ice Age,” said Nolan. “Up until the late 1800s these glaciers were actually gr...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 11, 2008 The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously calculated according to a scientific paper by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Sebastian H. Mernild published recently in the journal “Hydrological Processes.” The study is based on the results of state-of-the-art modeling using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as satellite images and observations from on the ground in Greenland. Mernild and his team found that the total amount of Greenland Ice Sheet freshwater input into the North Atlantic Ocean expected from 2071 to 2100 will be more than double what is currently observed. The current East Greenland Ice Sheet freshwater flux is 257 km3 per year from...

On Tuesday, April 8, middle- and high-school students from Fairbanks, Shageluk and Wasilla, Alaska, will join with students from the other end of the globe, in Ushuaia, Argentina, in a live two-hour videoconference that is part of International Polar Year (IPY) activities at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The students will respond to a focus question about the important seasonal indicators in their area (such as budburst, leaves changing colors, or river/lake freeze-up or break-up), and how those indicators may be impacted by climate change. They will then discuss their answers with each other and with several arctic and antarctic scientists who will be on hand. This videoconference, similar to one that was held a year ago on the UAF campus, is part of an Internat...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 4, 2008 Children near both poles will have a chance to talk to each other and scientists about changes they are seeing in their own environments and how people are adapting to those changes during an International Polar Year pole-to-pole videoconference Tuesday, April 8, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Through the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program, known as GLOBE, students in Fairbanks, Shageluk and Wasilla, Alaska will exchange their research ideas and interact with students from Ushuaia, Argentina, as well as with scientists from Alaska, Colorado and Argentina. The exchange is part of the IPY GLOBE Seasons and Biomes project, which trains K-12 teachers and students ...

In collaboration with this year's Celebrate the North theme of Ice Alaska 2008, the University of Alaska International Polar Year office has scheduled several activities at the ice park to provide visitors with a chance to learn about polar research. The activities will begin with an IPY celebration ceremony at 2 p.m. on March 8, at the IPY ice stage at the ice park. The event will feature a presentation of flags from all of the circumpolar nations followed by the Borealis Brass premier of Polar Synthesis, a full-length composition by UAF Associate Professor James Bicigo, based on the Polar Fanfare Bicigo composed last March in recognition of IPY. The local Pavva dance group will perform in celebration of Alaska's unique cultures and Nanook the bear wi...

Feb. 26, 2008: What started as a quick idea to spice-up an International Polar Year event has resulted in a full-length musical composition in celebration of polar science and the uniqueness of the north. University of Alaska Fairbanks Associate Professor James Bicigo recently completed a composition for brass ensemble based on his “Polar Fanfare,” which premiered at UAF’s IPY kick-off celebration last year. The full-length piece, titled “Polar Synthesis” includes five movements, each based on a northern theme. “The movements are titled Polar Fanfare, Aurora, Polar Bears, Break up- Climate Change and Synthesis- Understanding,” says Bicigo. “I’m really excited about the way the last movement ties together the themes from the fi...

In late December, Dr. Elena Sparrow of the UArctic IPY Higher Education and Outreach Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was pleased to help welcome Dr. Rhian Salmon, coordinator of education and outreach activities at the IPY International Programme Office in Cambridge, UK, as Rhian celebrated the new year with her first-ever trip to Alaska. Her two-and-a-half-week stay was filled with meetings, tours, and presentations, along with generous doses of Alaskan hospitality, as she became better acquainted with the IPY research and outreach activities in the state. Most of Rhian’s time was spent in Fairbanks, in Alaska's interior. There she had numerous meetings and discussions with researchers, administrators and other staff at the University of Alaska Fairba...

The University of the Arctic’s International Polar Year (IPY) Higher Education and Outreach project cluster encompasses a wide variety of IPY-approved projects, and among them is an exciting new college-level science course, “Environmental Radioactivity, Stewardship, and People of the North,” that successfully debuted during Fall Semester 2007 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Development of the course was funded by a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, “Adapting SENCER to the Arctic—Improving Polar Science Education as a Legacy” (NSF 632397), to Principal Investigator and UAF professor Lawrence K. Duffy. SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities) is a national movement in U.S. education to reform the teaching of...