IHTEC - Arctic Acrobats

Arctic Acrobats


Linking Circumpolar Schools through Sustainability Education.

Arctic Acrobats is a program in Circumpolar Sustainability Education for schools in the Circumpolar Regions, as part of the "United Nations Decade for A Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World" (UNESCO). Arctic Acrobats was launched at the Circumpolar Climate Change Summit, held in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada on March 18th-21st, 2001.


Curriculum:

Integrated Studies include Peace Education, Conflict Resolution, Environmental Studies, Inter-Cultural Understanding, Social Studies, Geographical Studies, Language Arts, Performing Arts, Maths and Science, Peace Education, Citizenship, and Community Service.


Highlights:

A Secondary program of study showing the inter-relationships between various areas of the environmental that link to climate change. Twinning of schools in Circumpolar (Arctic or the countries who work in the Antarctic). Reports to be sent in writing to governments.


AWARDS:

Achievement Awards, as noted above, include a beautiful "Arctic Acrobat" pin, awarded for 40 hours of community service: soon to be available from IHTEC.


Aims

- To build virtual links between schools in another country. ie: Canada and Russia

Circumpolar countries.

- To establish pilot projects between Northern Aboriginal people.ie: Canada in Russia.

- To create awareness reports on the melting ice.

- Communicate the results in an artistic format, to share with your twinned school.


Study area

Circumpolar region, north of 60' N. This includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, with others. We suggest the following: Iceland, Norway, the Russia Federation Sweden, and the United States of America.


How do you get started ?

Register on IHTEC 
http://www.ihtec.org/IHTECPages/IHTEC-RegistrationForm.html
Study the following inter-relationships

- The grasshopper effect from the soil, to air to the food chain of PCBs; the atmospheric emissions from aircraft, and space vehicles; and their relationship to ecosystem health.

- The polluted atmosphere and its effect on the ozone.

- The relationship between the air currents and ocean currents.

- The relationship between ocean currents and oceanic pollution.

- An understanding why the ocean currents are changing direction and the short and long term effect on the polar icecap;

- The relationship between the melting ice from Greenland and from glaciers on other land masses, and the expected sea level rise.



Write an original report  of your research. This to be shared with others.


Record the process

Make your outcomes available for sharing


- Several groups of students study the inter-relationships.

- Identify the overlapping areas where the studies meet

- Write a report of the results.

- Share results via email, video or school visits with your twinned school.

- Create a folder with art, photos of the research.

- Identify your community's involvement in the process and solutions.

- Develop a Promotional Brochure.

- Build Display / Story Boards for shows.

- Create a web site, that can be linked to the IHTEC site. 

.......................

Web Links for study:


Humidex and Windchill Calculators http://www.physlink.com/Reference/Weather.cfm

Climate Prediction, the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. http://climateprediction.net/

'The Globe Program' http://www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html

Buckminster Fuller Institute http://www.bfi.org/

http://www.cruzio.com/-ioemoore/

Experimental Aircraft Association http://www.eaa.org

NASA Dryden Flight Research Centre http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov

Experimental Aircraft http://www.exp-aircraft.com/links.html

Global Environment Facility http://www.gefweb.org

Canada Well-Being Measurement Act Bill C-469
http://www.cyberus.ca/choose.sustain/index5.html

Arctic Council http://www.nrc.ca/arctic/


http://www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html

Web Links for teachers

Circumpolar Climate Change Summit

http://www.taiga.net/nce/cirumpolar

Environment Canada http://www.toolsofchange.com

http://www.climatechange.gc.ca

Globe Program http://www.globe.gov

Sustainable Communities http://www.earthfuture.com

Finnish Global Research Centre FIGARE http://figare.utu.fi

ECO-Accord Moscow Russia http://www.ecoaccord.cis.lead.org

Register your projects on

"The Future of Children and Youth of the Arctic" at:

http://www.arctic_council.org

IHTEC register          

http://www.ihtec.org/IHTECPages/IHTEC-RegistrationForm.html