STEM Blog

Free Webinar and Resources: What the Ice and Penguins Tell Us About Our Changing Planet

Take the ultimate expedition with your students to explore the Arctic and Antarctic poles like never before. Join producers and scientists from Discovery Channel's groundbreaking series, Frozen Planet, to hear about their experiences filming the series in the polar regions and the work they are doing each and every day to study the evolving landscape and ecosystems there.They will discuss how their career lets them make a positive impact on the environment every day, and what students can do to make a difference.

Before attending this webinar, you may wish to download an amazing eleven page resource guide filled with engaging classroom activities. You can get access to this once you have enrolled in the Siemens STEM Academy and signed up for the webinar. Just click on the lesson plan under classroom connections. You may also wish to visit the Frozen Planet Website for both before and after activities. At this site you will find the following valuable resources.

• Video clips - An amazing collection of short video clips that can spur class discussions, provide prompts for writing, or be used to flip the classroom as students view and reflect as homework.
• Episodes - Integrates awesome resources to compliment each episode providing a rich and engaging learning experience.
• Penguin Cam - Take a look at this exclusive channel devoted to watching the 300 penguins that call the San Diego Zoo home. You can even tune in on the feedings.  Penguin Cam is on 24 hours a day and as an added bonus provides a question and answer program every Monday from noon - 12:30 PM EDT.
• Making Of - Do you want to discover how they did some of those memorable video captures? Take a look at these short clips to learn more.
• Infographics - Some amazing statistics and illustrations in regards to the frozen world. Perhaps it might lead to ideas for student made infographics in areas they are studying.
• Game - Who doesn't enjoy a great game. Perhaps just the right entry event for the webinar or study of the frozen biomes.
• Photos - Click on one of the episode photos and you will discover a goldmine of colorful images. Each has  descriptions and reflections. Some great possibilities exists as discussion prompts and writings.
• Facts - Who doesn't like incredible and intriguing facts? You can find all kinds of ways to incorporate them in the classroom. In fact, the lesson plans in the webinar registration section will give you an idea.

It is true! Every student has the power to help protect our environment, from their local community all the way to the poles. Join us for this very special Webinar that will even allow students to see exclusive sneak peeks of yet-to-be-aired episodes of this inspiring series! They will have the opportunity to meet:

• Dan Rees, Producer/Director, Frozen Planet - Learn more about Dan Rees: http://www.bbcearth.com/people/dan-rees/
• Bob Bindschadler, former Chief Scientist of NASA's Laboratory for Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences - Learn more about Bob Bindschadler: http://neptune.gsfc.nasa.gov/personnel/index.php?id=302
• Ron Naveen, Founder, Oceanites, Inc. / Principal Investigator, Antarctic Site Inventory - Learn more about Ron Naveen and Oceanites: http://www.oceanites.org/

Register Today - Don't miss this exciting LIVE event!  - Thursday, April 12, 2012, 1pm ET (Event will also be archived for later use)

We sure hope you join us for this incredible live event, or check it out later in the archive.  Don't miss out on future great posts and resources dedicated to STEM education. Now is a great time to sign up for an RSS feed and also follow us on twitter at SiemensSTEMAcad. You may even wish to share this post with others via a quick email or even a tweet! Until the next post... have a great week! - Mike Gorman

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Michael Gorman

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