Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines have become key focus areas in the education community of the United States. Newly adopted across the nation, Next Generation Science Standards require that educators embrace innovative approaches to teaching. Transforming classrooms to actively engage students through a combination of knowledge and practice develops conceptual understanding and application skills. The partnerships between researchers and educators during the Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE) offer an example of how academic research can enhance K-12 student learning. In this commentary, we illustrate how ASPIRE teacher-scientist partnerships helped engage students with actual and virtual authentic scientific investigations. Crosscutting concepts of research in polar marine science can serve as intellectual tools to connect important ideas about ocean and climate science for the public good.
PolarTREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (PolarTREC) has provided the opportunity for over 160 K-12 teachers and informal science educators from the USA to work directly with scientists in the Arctic and the Antarctic. As a Teacher Research Experience (TRE), PolarTREC has engaged teachers with a unique professional development opportunity to increase their teacher content knowledge and learn about the polar regions by partnering with academic polar scientists who are conducting scientific research in the field. Stimulated by the IPY 2007–2008, PolarTREC has sent teachers on field expeditions for over a decade, and during that time has witnessed teachers not only experiencing the polar regions and bringing that experience back into their classrooms but also seeing their students learn more about the polar regions and become more interested in polar science. It is this secondary effect that is truly inspiring. This article profiles the journey to the polar regions of four PolarTREC teachers through their own perspectives and how they translated that experience into educational outreach opportunities.
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