International Workshop: Bringing Polar Research Into The Classrooms
International teacher workshop in Portugal
© josé Xavier
On 26 to 28 March the International Polar Foundation participates in the International workshop “Education Meet Science: Bringing Polar Research Into The Classrooms” in Coimbra, Portugal. This workshop will bring together 40 polar scientists, educators and teachers from 15 countries from Europe and North America.
Organised by the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), participants will focus on:
- providing tools and resources about Polar Sciences for teachers
- facilitating collaboration between polar scientists and educators
- defining a strategy for education and outreach about the Polar Regions
Sandra Vanhove, head of the education team, will be active trough out this 3-days event, thus carrying forward the established momentum going of engaging teachers/educators, along with their schools, students and the general public, in polar education and in understanding the importance of the polar regions to our planet.
Sandra will present IPF’s progress on educational projects in a talk entitled ‘Polar science Education in and beyond Belgium’. The presentation will display a number of factors that were imperative to the success of IPF's education beyond IPY.
She will also lead side meetings and contribute to panel discussions bringing the Polar Educators International platform in a European context, where both linguistic and cultural barriers exist. Can these barriers be overcome or, even better, can our differences be turned into assets?
As an example, we will look at a joined effort between the International Polar Foundation and the Italian Scuola Polare Estiva per Insegnanti on the Sunshadows project.
