Antarctic Penguins, Teaching the Science of Climate Change: A Celebration of IPY

这个项目使用企鹅来吸引学生探索科学如何调查地球生物群和气候的变化。该项目建立在一项名为企鹅科学的试点工作的基础上，将开发PowerPoint演示文稿、短视频“网络素材”、背景阅读材料以及现场和互动网站组件，以吸引学生参与正在进行的实地研究。K-14岁的学生将参与气候变化研究，包括生态学、沉积学、古生物学、冰川学和海洋学。该项目将使用极受欢迎的南极群冰企鹅(阿德利和帝王)来研究生物对环境变化的反应，并解决这样一个问题：我们如何知道我们所知道的？活动包括目前和过去12,000年来不断变化的环境如何影响这些生物的种群数量和分布。阿德利企鹅和帝企鹅的人口和生态似乎对陆上和海洋冰的变化特别敏感。物种对气候变化的反应非常复杂，极地物种也不例外：在南极洲的一些地区，极地物种正在减少，在另一些地区，极地物种在增加，这两种趋势都与冰的变化有关。然而，生态学家、地质学家、冰川学家和海洋学家已经很好地理解了这些反应，他们把企鹅在该地区的年代和顺序占据作为全新世期间冰盖退缩和前进以及海冰持续性变化的一个指标。企鹅揭示的模式证实了冰川和沉积物岩芯的信息。该项目将以一种吸引学生的方式比较这些代理(如何收集数据，如何分析它们，以及它们的含义)。

This project uses penguins to hook students into exploring how science investigates changes in Earths biota and climate. The project builds on a pilot effort, called Penguin Science, and will develop PowerPoint presentations, short video "webisodes," background reading material, and live and interactive website components to engage students in ongoing field research. Students, K-14, will be involved in climate-change research that will include ecology, sedimentology, paleontology, glaciology and oceanography. The project will use the amazingly popular Antarctic pack-ice penguins (Adelie and Emperor) to look at biotic responses to environmental change, and address the question: How do we know what we know? Activities include how the changing environment currently and over the previous 12,000 years has affected the population size and distribution of these creatures. The demography and ecology of Adelie and Emperor penguins appear to be particularly sensitive to changes in land-based and marine ice. The response of species to climate change is very complex and polar species are no exception: in some parts of Antarctica they are declining and in others increasing, both trends related to changing ice. However, these responses are well enough understood that ecologists, geologists, glaciologists and oceanographers have used the dated, sequential penguin occupancy of areas as one proxy for ice sheet retreat and advance, as well as changes in sea-ice persistence, during the Holocene. The patterns revealed by penguins corroborate the information from glacier and sediment cores. The project will compare these proxies (how the data are gathered, how they are analyzed, and what they mean) in a way that will be engaging to students.