Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship outreach

Presenting at the HaSTA annual conference on September 13, 2014.

  
Sharing my expedition learning with students has been most meaningful, but I have also enjoyed telling my story to the larger community of teachers and the public. Today, I had the opportunity to present about my Arctic expedition at the Hawai'i Science Teachers Association (HaSTA) annual conference! I think they'll be some very enthusiastic educators from Hawaii applying to the National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship Program this year...

Message to Science Teachers
Here is a link to the Prezi for my session entitled Exploring the Arctic: My Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship. At the start of the talk, I showed a picture of myself in the GTF hat on the deck of the Explorer in the Arctic. I told everyone I would let them know how I ended up on the adventure of a lifetime and how they potentially could as well, through the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship. I then summarized the GTF Program: expedition travel as professional development for teachers committed to geo-literacy. Next, I explained the National Geographic's three components of geo-literacy, and there was rich discussion about how science teachers can incorporate these components into their curricula. Finally, I got into the details about my expedition, the Land of the Ice Bears, and I explained the characteristics of the Arctic Svalbard region using maps and pictures.

I moved through a series of my photographs, highlighting some of the main features of the expedition, including the ship, my shipmates, the landings, the wildlife, and the scenery. Then, I connected my expedition to the larger issue of global climate change as I described lessons learned on my voyage. I explained why Arctic sea ice is so important as critical habitat for wildlife and for regulating global climate, and I shared charts and data that illustrated the recent decline of Arctic sea ice. The “Chasing Ice” trailer was viewed and I described calving events, glacial retreat, and other effects of climate change in the Arctic. I concluded with a summary of how my GTF experience has impacted me and then played my interview from the Video Expedition Report: “it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

Other Community Outreach
I am so proud to be an ambassador for National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions and to help carry their missions forward. For my community outreach, in addition to today's HaSTA presentation, I have leveraged existing partnerships with community organizations, and I have actively sought out new avenues for sharing my experiences. I currently volunteer as an interpreter at the Waikiki Aquarium, and I was able to set up a “learning lunch” slideshow and talk story about my Arctic voyage and the GTF Program. I also volunteer for plankton outreach with Kahi Kai (One Ocean), a local marine conservation group. Before and after my voyage, Kahi Kai published my blog posts. My other outreach activities came as a result of me reaching out to local media. I was able to do pre and post voyage live interviews with our two local news stations KHON2 and KITV4, a live interview on Hawaii Public Radio, an a pre and post voyage print interview with the Midweek. If you haven't yet, you can check out all these interviews on my In the News page!  I have applied to present at the 2015 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference in Chicago this spring, and I hope I have the opportunity to attend.

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