Content
Newsletter n°3, 7 March 2017
1. Your third online newsletter
2. Monitoring system is on – add your observations!
3. Check out new upcoming lessons
4. Arctic competition – next stage begins!
5. EDU-ARCTIC in Spain: straight from INTED2017 conference
6. Spreading the word about EDU-ARCTIC
1. Your third online newsletter
This is the third online newsletter that you get as a part of the EDU-ARCTIC family, dedicated to keeping you informed about the latest developments and key happenings within the EDU-ARCTIC project, as well as to remind you about the very useful educational tools that are available to you as educators.
2. Monitoring system is on-add your observations!
We are very happy to announce the launch of the EDU-ARCTIC Monitoring System. All schools in Europe are invited to participate in making meteorological and phenological observations in the vicinity of their schools and to report these observations on the EDU-ARCTIC portal. All schools will have access to the data accumulated during the course of the project. No special equipment is needed.
Check out our Manual for Teachers, a useful field guide for both teachers and students that describes in detail all the technical guidelines and parameters to be observed. Everyone is also invited to take part in the lesson dedicated to environmental monitoring on 20th March, during which participants will gain more insight into monitoring the environment around them.
For those who participate in EDU-GAME, please note that there are extra points for being a part of the Monitoring Web!
We invite you to become a part of our Monitoring Web, which will help you learn more about the environment around you! The observations the school students make will be reported to the Monitoring System every Monday. Some meteorological parameters in our monitoring system are reported as actual values: air temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, visibility reduction and wind force. We also ask you to report on meteorological and hydrological phenomena that occurred within the previous week such as lightning, noteworthy atmospheric phenomena, ice on lakes and rivers, and snow cover.
We also help you become engaged in biological field observations, including observing plants (birch, lilac, bilberry, rosebay willowherb, rowan), insects (bumblebee, mosquito, ant, common brimstone, European peacock butterfly) and birds (Arctic tern, common cuckoo, white wagtail, crane). Due to the large variation in environments and habitats throughout the European continent, some of the parameters and variables can be difficult to observe (if you do not observe a particular species in your surroundings, you may just leave the box empty)
3. Check out our new upcoming lessons!
There are still some places available for our new lessons in March. If you want to see what it’s like to study Earth form space, find out what LIDAR is used for and learn all about Polar lows we encourage you to sign in.
Remember, You can get an overview of the online lessons that are already available by having a look at the calendar of upcoming lessons. The time of online lessons is always posted in UTC (GMT+0), so make sure to convert it to the right time zone if necessary!
4. Arctic competition: the next stage begins!
The first stage of the EDU-ARCTIC project's Arctic competitions is now closed. We are very happy to have received applications from schools in Poland, Romania, Greece, Spain and Italy!
For those who submitted applications (a short summary of their projects), the next stage has already begun. The deadline for submitting the full project description is the 21st of March at midnight UTC!
For those submitting a full project proposal, all you need to do is follow some very easy instructions!
When you log in to the EDU-ARCTIC portal, go to the section "Profile" and then to your application. You need to search for the button next to the sentence "If you want to add or change your project, please click here.” This is the section where you can submit your full proposal. The full proposal of the project should be written in English and cannot exceed 7,500 characters (not including illustrations or pictures). Videos must be no longer than 5 minutes, however you can also submit an animation. Any posters you submit must be original artwork.
For more details, please consult the Arctic competitions page on the EDU-ARCTIC website, as well as the competition rules and the information sheet about the competition. We've also prepared additional FAQs for participants with useful information and tips.
If you have any questions about the competition, you may contact Lis Mortensen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Barbara Biskopstø Hansen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
We look forward to reading your full project proposals. Good luck with preparing them!
5. EDU-ARCTIC in Spain: straight from INTED2017 conference
On 6th of March, EDU-ARCTIC programme was presented at the session on the 11th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference, INTED2017, in Valencia (Spain).
INTED is one of the largest international education conferences for lecturers, researchers, technologists and professionals from the educational sector. After 10 years, it has become a reference event where more than 700 experts from 80 countries get together to present their projects and share their knowledge on teaching and learning methodologies, educational innovations and experiences in technology and development.
The presentation called How to conduct inspiring webinars for STEM classes in secondary schools: Experiences from EDU-ARCTIC program on the Arctic and polar research was given within a session on Experiences in STEM education hold on 6th of March.
INTED is believed to be a one of the best platforms for international strategic networking and a great opportutiny to present innovations and projects on education and technology.
In April 2017, the EDU-ARCTIC programme will be presented at the 3rd International Workshop of Polar Educators International (PEI) in Rovereto, Italy – intensive 4-day workshop to share the best research and education practices in the field of polar science.
6. Spreading the word about EDU-ARCTIC
We hope that as members of the EDU-ARCTIC community, you will help us spread the word about the project! We have many promotional materials, including videos available in eight languages on the EDU-ARCTIC YouTube channel plus promotional brochures in seven languages available on our website.
And don’t forget to visit our website for the latest news, follow our Facebook page, Twitter feed and Instagram account. We also have an EDU-ARCTIC profile on LinkedIn, which you are welcome and encouraged to follow, as it can help you to make contact with other professionals in STEM education.
We look forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming online lessons and hope to see some of you compete in the first Arctic competition!
This project (EDU-ARCTIC) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 710240. The content of the website is the sole responsibility of the Consortium and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission, and the Commission is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained.