ANDRILL ARISE: A model for team-based field research immersion for educators

Abstract

The 4th International Polar Year featured a range of large international research projects and included a focus on Education and Public Outreach (EPO). ANDRILL (the ANtarctic geological DRILLing Project) was a large international (USA, New Zealand, Italy, Germany) multidisciplinary research project investigating the sedimentary record of Cenozoic ice sheet dynamics that brought approximately 160 scientists to McMurdo Station in the 2006 and 2007 field seasons, during which two > 1000 m sediment cores were successfully retrieved from the floor of the Ross Sea. ARISE (ANDRILL Research Immersion for Science Educators), the EPO arm of ANDRILL, deployed an international team of six to eight educators each season to Antarctica and embedded them with science teams. ARISE was unique in the EPO spectrum because it deployed a team of international educators together with an EPO coordinator, offered an on-ice geoscience course for the educators, and supported educator participation at both pre-ice and post-ice meetings. Conservative estimates indicate that at least 314,700 individuals have been reached directly through the wide range of ARISE EPO endeavours.Educator field research immersion is a small subset of educator professional development (PD) opportunities, with little quantitative or qualitative evaluation of polar immersion experiences having been reported. Here, surveys of ARISE educators and scientists are used to evaluate the efficacy of the ARISE program as PD in the context of research on educator PD. Persistent and recurring themes emerging from the surveys are: (1) the positive and reinforcing impact of deployment as a team; (2) the importance of access to scientists across an extended period of time and venues; (3) the importance of ‘doing science’ as a means of learning; and (4) recognition of the senses of excitement, engagement and inspiration displayed by both educators and scientists − about drilling progress, core interpretation, and outreach plans – and the EPO audience. Key components of the program are shown to be (1) deployment of a multi-educator team; and (2) guidance and support of the EPO coordinator at all phases of the ARISE experience.

Inspiring the next generation of polar scientists: Classroom extensions from teachers with research experiences

“…The [2007][2008] International Polar Year (IPY) was the catalyst for many successful field-based polar education endeavours such as Students on Ice (Students on Ice Foundation, 2019), Schools on Board (ArcticNet, 2019), and ARISE (ANDRILL Research Immersion for Science Educators) (Pound et al, 2019). Another IPY Education and Outreach project from the USA was PolarTREC -Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating, administered by ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States).…”

The changing views of Antarctica

“…Given the nature of Antarctic operations, journalists are embedded in activities almost as tightly as they would when covering war zones. ANDRILL and many other international projects entrenched journalists and educators fully into the research programme (Pound et al, 2019). While this gives journalists unparalleled access to scientists and their work, it can lead to wariness among fellow news journalists back home who perceive this as being too close to sources and interviewees.…”

Celebrating IPY Education, Outreach and Engagement – 10 years on

“…The Special Issue also includes two papers that indicate the significant value and attention that IPY EOC invested in teachers, as critical conduits to the next generation(s). Pound et al (2019, this issue) and Warburton, Hademenos, Eilers-Guttensohn, Garay, and Worssam (2019, this issue) present two of IPY’s flagship teacher immersion programmes, ANDRILL and PolarTrec, respectively. While ANDRILL was connected to a specific IPY science project focused on geological drilling, and PolarTrec matched teachers with a range of researchers across the Arctic and Antarctic, both of these programmes placed value on training teachers as researchers, and two-way transfer of expertise between scientists and teachers.…”