A Dartmouth-JSEP Partnership for International Science Education in Greenland

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

Investigators

Abstract

Dartmouth faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students will provide support for U.S. participation in the Joint Science Education Project (JSEP) and associated educational outreach efforts. JSEP is an internationally funded program that brings American, Danish and Greenlandic students and teachers to Greenland for a three-week field school experience. The program includes research related experiences in the Kangerlussuaq area and at the U.S. supported Summit Station on the Greenland ice sheet. Components of the US participation included in this award are: sending a small team of graduate student and postdoctoral researchers with polar field experience, along with a Dartmouth faculty member, to Greenland to support field science education in the JSEP programs; continued training of an international group of students, teachers, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in cross-cultural science communication to advance the understanding of polar science in Greenland; sharing this training more broadly with the polar community; hosting planning meetings and workshops to design the curriculum for Science and Education Week and to help coordinate efforts by all parties engaged in JSEP; working with partners in Greenland and Denmark to increase the visibility of JSEP; and sharing and assessing the results of JSEP through public presentations, education-focused symposia at national meetings and publications in scholarly journals. Benefits to U.S. students, teachers, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty will include: improved science communication skills; greater facility in framing and communicating scholarship to meet the needs of Arctic communities; increased capacity for recognizing, assimilating, and communicating traditional knowledge; and skills for implementing programs that will broaden impacts of their future scholarship. The postdoc and graduate students will receive training in managing interdisciplinary research and outreach teams, thereby preparing them as future leaders in Arctic science and policy. Program goals include developing and disseminating curricula strategies that will increase general awareness of polar issues, attract the next generation of polar scientists and strengthen the international network of polar researchers.