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

该项目利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。该项目建立在一个名为“企鹅科学”的试点工作的基础上，并将开发PowerPoint演示文稿、短视频“网络视频”、背景阅读材料以及实时和交互式网站组件，以吸引学生参与正在进行的实地研究。学生，K-14，将参与气候变化研究，将包括生态学，沉积学，古生物学，冰川学和海洋学。该项目将使用令人惊讶的受欢迎的南极浮冰企鹅（阿德利和皇帝）来研究生物对环境变化的反应，并解决这个问题：我们如何知道我们所知道的？活动包括当前和过去12，000年来不断变化的环境如何影响这些生物的人口规模和分布。阿德利企鹅和帝企鹅的人口和生态似乎对陆基和海冰的变化特别敏感。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，它们正在减少，而在另一些地区则在增加，这两种趋势都与冰的变化有关。然而，这些反应已经足够好地理解，生态学家，地质学家，冰川学家和海洋学家已经使用了过时的，连续的企鹅占领的地区作为一个代理冰盖退缩和前进，以及海冰的持久性变化，在全新世。企鹅揭示的模式证实了冰川和沉积物芯的信息。该项目将以一种吸引学生的方式比较这些代理（数据如何收集，如何分析以及它们的含义）。

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.