Outreach

Lesson Plan "Permafrost in the Arctic"

The lesson plan “Permafrost in the Arctic” explores the subject of degrading permafrost and its effects on men and environment from different spatial and thematic perspectives. Different questions discuss the situation in the High North: What characterizes the Arctic environment? What changed in the Arctic over the last decades? What is permafrost? How does thawing permafrost affect the Arctic environment? How does thawing permafrost affect Arctic infrastructure?

The teaching material consists of teaching instructions, three interactive, multimedia online stories and student handouts. Teachers can choose from two different role plays to have students investigate current permafrost research topics or explore the conflict of interests of different Arctic stakeholders.

Lesson Plan

 

Permafrost in the Arctic

Living in the wild North

The Permafrost Risk

The Ocean Race Summit

Dr. Rebecca Rolph was an invited speaker at an all-hands-on-deck meeting at the Ocean’s Race, an organization holds sailing races around the world.  The Ocean’s Race has a growing interest in promoting sustainability and ocean conservation practices, and this meeting was intended to inform the CEO, professional sailors, and their sustainability team, about the ocean’s role in the climate and climate change in general.  Rebecca explained how the ocean regulates climate, what changes are happening in the ocean, and how we can project changes via climate models.  She explained how climate models can be used to attribute global warming to greenhouse gases released by human activities.  She was also invited to a Science Communication workshop, financed by the Ocean’s Race, in addition to the Ocean’s Race Summits meeting in collaboration with 11th Hour Racing.

Slides