General outreach is of particular importance to the Norwegian IPY effort. IPY should lead to increased researcher recruitment and increased interest among students within the fields of polar science. It should also increase the general awareness of polar issues and its significance for society.
Within iAOOS Norway we acknowledge the importance of outreach, and we strive to use the occasion of the IPY to lift the general awareness about polar research. We hope that the iAOOS project will be a relevant project to use to gain media attention for the IPY in general here in Norway as well as internationally. We intend to pursue the outreach along two main lines; School based education and general outreach.
Task 5.1: Higher Education
At the university level the education takes place by incorporating Postdocs, PhD and Master students in the project. The students will participate in the full project sequence, from planning the cruises and field campaigns, carrying out the work at sea and on the ice, analyzing the data and, finally, publishing their findings in their thesis and in journals.
Task 5.2: Summer school on sea ice
Jointly with BIAC, another NFR IPY project, iAOOS-Norway is co-sponsoring a summer school on sea ice (www.seaice.info) at University Centre in Svalbard July 2007. The summer school is organized by Frank Nilsen (participant in iAOOS-Norway) and Peter Haugan (University of Bergen). The two-week long summer school is aimed at students at graduate level (PhD) in geophysics, biology, physics or other relevant subjects that conduct sea-ice related research. The event is co-sponsored by several relevant projects and institutions. One such funding project is DAMOCLES, and iAOOS-Norway and BIAC secure complete funding of this important education event by allocating the necessary additional funds. World-leading experts on a wide range of sea-ice related subjects will be invited to give lectures. The summer school will act as a very broad base for inter-disciplinary discussion among national and international scientists and students, and will lead to a variety of further co-operations. We expect that about 70 students from across the world will take part in the school. All lectures will be summarized and published in a textbook. The lectures and the textbook will be made available through a website, which will provide a broad in depth overview over the current state of sea-ice research.
Task 5.3: Incorporating elementary and primary schools
The education line is also pursued by incorporating elementary and primary schools in the project. The project will maintain a teacher in field program, where 4-5 teachers are invited to join in on cruises and field campaigns each year as active field assistants. The experience of the teachers will be conveyed to their classes while on the cruise when infrastructure allows, and be a part of an educational program at the schools involved. Correspondingly the researchers will interact with the schools in their teaching. The interaction with the schools is happening in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Science Education (www.naturfagsenteret.no) and their IPY liaison Karl Torstein Hetland. The centre is a national resource centre for science education (kindergarten, primary and secondary school, adult education and teacher training), with the main objective to enable pupils and teachers to consolidate competence and motivate interest in natural science.
iAOOS-Norway is joining forces with the Norwegian IPY Youth Steering Committee (www.ipyyouth.org), the arctic marine ecosystem research network ARCTOS (www.nfh.uit.no/arctos) and several Norwegian IPY funded projects to apply for funding of a coordinated effort in this direction in response to the NFR call on IPY Outreach. Among other things, funding will be sough to cover travel, accommodation and extra costs for the teachers and schools, including extra material for the classes.
Task 5.4: Internet site
iAOOS Norway will maintain an internet site describing the program and field activities, existing knowledge, new data and results as they come in, including interactive pages for educational purposes. The site will feature a link to real time oceanographic observations performed by the sea gliders in the project. Acknowledging that an ambitious internet site requires resources, we budget for person months to develop and maintain such a site along with the project administration. These person months are combined with another IPY funded project, THORPEX, ensuring a streamlined use of the resources.
Task 5.5: Open ship
The project will keep an open ship in Tromsø upon the return from the two planned field campaigns with KV Svalbard. Instrumentation and preliminary results will be displayed on posters, with researchers on their post to answer questions from visitors. The scientific component will be accompanied by presentations and tours of KV Svalbard, an impressing display of modern marine technology. Journalists and school classes will be specially invited.
Task 5.6: Media participation
The project will invite and encourage journalists to participate on the field campaigns and on the deployment operations on the drift stations Tara and NP-35. A professional photographer and film/TV photographer will be invited to participate on the field campaigns. We intend to seek a versatile photographer with proven abilities to produce books and exhibitions from diverse photographic genres such as underwater photography, portraits, sport and action, wildlife and scenery. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary department will be invited to participate as well, and is showing interest in the project. We also seek to invite government officials and representatives from political organisations to visit during the field campaigns.
