IPY: Current Climate changes over Eastern Siberia and Interior Alaska and their Impact on Permafrost Landscapes, Ecosystem Dynamics, and Hydrological Regime

该项目在环极永久冻土区的学校附近建立长期永久冻土带监测点，为阿拉斯加土著学生提供有关永久冻土带的实地经验和课堂课程。北极气候影响评估（ACIA）报告再次引起了人们的关注，即永久冻土的加速融化或退化正在对基础设施、沿海过程和北极社区产生重大影响。大多数偏远村庄依靠自给自足的生活方式，不断变化的气候和永久冻土条件直接影响到土著社区。为了更好地了解这些变化，该项目正在阿拉斯加50所乡村学校钻孔，并安装带有温度传感器的数据记录器，以测量每小时的空气和永久冻土温度。从小学到高中，各个年级的老师都在帮助学生下载并分析科学课上的数据。为了支持课堂教学，该项目正在开发永久冻土/遥感课堂课程单元和一个永久冻土/遥感模块，将以DVD形式广泛提供。这些活动使学生能够合作和交流新的想法，以及发展超越科学课堂界限的批判性思维技能。通过互联网，教师和学生还可以将他们的数据与其他监控学校的数据进行比较。从这些站点收集的科学信息也通过一个在线永久冻土数据库与研究人员和公众共享。该研究涉及六个国际极地年主题中的三个：极地环境现状、极地环境变化和极地地区的人类社会。通过研究与教育的结合，该项目提供了关于阿拉斯加永久冻土热状态空间分布的高分辨率数据，提高了对地球气候模式的一般认识，将科学带到往往对科学接触有限的阿拉斯加偏远村庄，并为年轻一代提供了参与了解地球气候和水文系统的机会。

This project is establishing long-term permafrost monitoring sites adjacent to schools in the circumpolar permafrost region and providing Native Alaskan students with field experiences and classrooms lessons on permafrost. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report renewed concerns that enhanced thawing or degradation of permafrost is having a major impact on infrastructures, coastal processes, and Arctic communities. Most remote villages depend on a subsistence lifestyle, and changing climate and permafrost conditions directly affect Native communities. To better understand these changes, the project is drilling boreholes at 50 Alaskan village schools and installing data loggers with temperature sensors that measure hourly air and permafrost temperatures. Teachers at grade levels ranging from elementary to high school are helping their students download and analyze the data in science classes. To support classroom instruction, the project is developing Permafrost/Remote Sensing Classroom Lesson units and a Permafrost/Remote Sensing module to be made widely available on DVD. These activities enable students to collaborate and communicate new ideas, as well as to develop critical thinking skills that transcend the boundaries of the science classroom. Using the Internet, teachers and students can also compare their data with data from other monitoring schools. The scientific information gathered from these stations is also being shared with researchers and the general public via an online permafrost database. The research addresses three of the six International Polar Year themes: The Current State of the Polar Environment, Change in the Polar Environment, and Human Societies in Polar Regions. Through integration of research and education, the project is providing high resolution data on the spatial distribution of the thermal state of permafrost in Alaska, improving the general knowledge of Earth's climatic patterns, bringing science to remote Alaskan villages that tend to have limited exposure to science, and providing an opportunity for younger generations to take part in understanding Earth's climatic and hydrologic systems.