International Polar Year Symposia and Web Seminars at NSTA Conferences on Science Education: Collaboration between NSF, NOAA, and NASA

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The International Polar Year 2007-2009 is a landmark event following 50-years after International Geophysical Year 1957. Not only is there a substantial emphasis on new discoveries in polar science and international collaboration, but on involving the general public in the process and the discoveries through formal and informal education. The National Science Teachers Association is the largest and oldest national organization of K-12 science teachers, with over 55,000 members. Each year there is an annual meeting with upwards of 30,000 participants and regional meetings to serve a broad cross-section of the country. This proposal is NSF's contribution to an interagency effort with NASA and NOAA to focus three symposia at the national meeting, not on particular agency efforts, but on specifically on IPY science through three themes: Ice, Life, and Water and Air. NSTA focuses on promoting innovation and excellence in science teaching and learning as well as the professional development of teachers to teach science. At NSTA meetings, teachers are exposed to current information in science and science education, which makes this an ideal venue for connecting K-12 educators and administrators with IPY 2007 curriculum materials and information. IPY 2007 begins in March 2007. The NSTA national meeting will be in St. Louis, Missouri March 28 - April 1, 2007, an ideal time to involve teachers in IPY science and provide them with the resources to leverage the inherent interest in the polar regions to teach science in accordance with national science education standards. NSTA together with researchers supported by NSF, NASA and NOAA will develop content for the symposia and online instruction following the conference. Symposia have a short overview session followed by a full day of presentations focusing on aspects of the science theme. Content will focus on the most current polar research in these areas and tie it to numerous national science teaching standards. This project is NSF's contribution to the multi-agency effort by supporting one symposia at the national meeting in St. Louis and one at a regional meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah December 7-9, 2006. The regional meeting will be an opportunity to pilot the shared deliver of IPY content and fine-tune the on-site delivery, evaluation metrics and evaluation structure to improve the delivery of IPY content at the National Meeting.