Adventure Learning @ Greenland: Education and Outreach in the Arctic

As climate change increasingly impacts the world we live in, it is important for science and education communities to find more effective and timely ways of communicating environmental research to K-12 students. In the summer of 2012, Adventure Learning @ Greenland (AL@GL) engaged high school students in atmospheric research both in the Arctic and at locations within the United States to enhance climate literacy. Adventure Learning combines hands-on, inquiry based, curriculum strategies with web-based technology to deliver exciting and authentic educational experiences. AL@GL utilized this approach as an education and outreach project for the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state, and Precipitation at Summit (ICECAPS) observatory at Summit Station, Greenland. The participants included diverse, rural and traditionally underrepresented students from the United States, Denmark, and Greenland who interacted from locations both in Idaho and Greenland. The project goals were: 1) to support climate literacy in high school students through the lens of the ICECAPS observatory, and 2) to develop a model for use by the scientific community in conducting education and outreach for other research programs. Here we present an outline of the AL@GL project, the curriculum model that was developed, and the results of this approach as it pertains to student learning outcomes.