Students around the world launched “virtual” balloons Thursday to kick off the International Polar Year.
The Surveyer explores the ice in 1978
NOAA Image Library
From investigating the properties of ice to comparing their locale to a class or school in Arctic regions, the kids (and their teachers) reported on their launch activities and posted their balloon on a world map.
The official, fancy ceremony sashayed from Paris about 10 a.m. UTC, or about 1 a.m. in Anchorage. Within 12 hours, even as the region shivered under a frigid high-pressure-blow with a 30-below chill factor and incongruously sunny skies, Alaska and the Far North were already signing on:
- All the icy details
- IPY Arctic Portal
- IPY links for teachers
- IPY in Alaska (with links for students)
- IPY projects in Alaska
- The IPY in the United States
- IPY breaking news
- IPY overview
- NSF Arctic sciences
- Polar year begins
- March Madness of Science
- Barrow High School
- International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks
- Eight 9th grade students and two teachers from Somers High School, Conn., on a visit to Fairbanks
- Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik and Kugluktuk High School in the far western Nunavut
- Chugach High School in Anchorage
- Jon Dykstra’s fifth grade class at Lake Otis Elementary in Anchorage
“I actually just found out about the IPY through the (Anchorage School District) Science Dept. today, but it sounded cool for the kids,” Dykstra told us in an email message a few hours later. “We placed the balloon and let the kids see our location on the satellite map on the computer projector.
“It looks like there are some fun experiments through the IPY website, and I plan to do the one investigating melting of the polar ice caps and increased sea level with my class. … I would like the kids to be aware of the global warming issue and to understand our role in the far north and how we might be affected.”