Seth Campbell - US grants

Although most environmental challenges disproportionately impact underrepresented communities, few nation-wide environmental programs effectively support or mentor students from these populations. This is particularly true of programs that train students in polar and climate sciences. The geosciences have long lacked diversity and are hampered by many barriers to entry for underrepresented students. The field environment associated with polar and climate research can be a barrier to students who have limited access to required equipment, supplies, or pre-field training. Under-represented students also often have limited exposure to related content in school and are confronting intrinsic cultural concerns about a career in these fields. To address these issues, the University of Maine will organize and support a conference where participants will focus on 1) developing new strategies for engaging under-represented students in polar sciences, both in the field and in the classroom; 2) developing relationships and collaborations between high school educators, informal educators who are part of the Upward Bound (UB) program and professional polar scientists; and 3) establishing a dialogue towards long-term engagement between educators and the Polar STEM community. Conference attendees will also have an opportunity to interact with students in the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) program. Positive undergraduate experiences and outdoor interest are two factors that have been attributed to attracting undergraduate students into geosciences, and a strong connection with mentors as well as summer research experiences are dominant factors in retention. Therefore, development of programs that provide opportunities for long term mentoring from faculty and inspiring summer field or non-field research experiences for students within target demographics is an important goal. This conference focuses on developing these opportunities for students in the Polar community by leveraging existing research and education resources.

This conference will support the development of new long-term collaborations focused on supporting the engagement of under-represented students in Polar STEM fields. The participants will strategize on how to improve polar STEM education through field experiences and through the development of data-centric, problem-based educational resources for the traditional classroom. These opportunities will not only benefit the attendees, but also the students whom they teach. Providing opportunities for students to learn about a career in Polar science is the first step in increasing a more diverse workforce within the field. The conference will be open to earth science educators and polar scientists from across the nation and to UB faculty and educators in Alaska, Washington, Maine, Florida and other UB programs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The use of radar in polar science has significantly increased over the past two decades. This workshop will assess: 1) current and future science and logistical drivers for radar-data collection, 2) current commercial, modified, and user-specific radar systems, 3) ongoing radar technology research and development, 4) equipment and software community access models, 5) radar education and training needs and options, and 6) approaches to facilitating radar usage in the science and logistics community. The workshop will deliver a white paper summarizing critical polar-science questions that drive radar needs as well as community interest and need in radar hardware, software, expertise, training, and education.

Ground-penetrating radar and related radar technologies are commonly used in polar environments for scientific research and logistical operations. Technical hardware and software research and development has broadened use of radar over the past few decades. Radar applications in polar regions include those in glaciology, permafrost and periglacial environments, near-surface geology and geomorphology, fluvial environments, and more. The wide applicability of radar and regular development of new applications has resulted in a high demand for these systems. Unfortunately, radar systems are often expensive or cost-prohibitive for individual scientists. And it is challenging for a broad swath of potential end-users to gain access to radar instrumentation or software for research; to develop the in-house expertise to collect, analyze, and quantitatively interpret radar results; and to stay up to date in these methodologies, particularly if radar is used only as a tool to address a specific science question. These trends underpin the need to assess the future options for radar within the polar science community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Obtaining glaciological and geologic data on the size of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet between the last two glacial periods (125,000 years ago), when global temperatures and sea level were higher than today, provides direct constraints on the ice sheet’s response to warmer climate. These data also provide validation points for ice-sheet models used to project future sea level. However, obtaining these data is difficult as the evidence for between glacial period ice extent lies below the present ice surface. A key location for determining this ice extent is Mount Waesche, a volcano that rises above the ice surface near the dome of the ice sheet. In preparation for drilling through the ice to obtain rock cores from lava flows that extend under the ice sheet, the team previously used ground-penetrating radar to map the sub-ice topography and internal glacial layering. These radar profiles revealed discontinuities within the ice that represent lower ice levels that may have occurred during the last between glacial periods. The ice-core work to be added through this award aims to enhance the team’s rock core drilling program at Mount Waesche by dating the discontinuities in the ice. Knowing the age of the discontinuities would provide independent evidence for past ice levels. Similar internal glacial discontinuities have been observed in radar profiles elsewhere in Antarctica; if the team is successful dating them at Mount Waesche, the technique could have wider application for constraining lower ice-sheet levels across Antarctica.<br/><br/>To maximize scientific return from the rock-drilling portion of the project, the team will collect and analyze ice samples to constrain the ages of englacial unconformities. Specifically, the team will obtain vertical ice cores that include the englacial unconformities using the Eclipse Drill and surface horizontal cores that sample exposed englacial tephra stratigraphy extending back to 118,000 years before present using a horizontal ice trencher. The team will extrapolate the resulting surface chronology to subsurface depths using radar, providing lateral depth-age constraints of stratigraphy. Isotopic and tephra analysis will be used to provide age constraints on the ice cores. These data will be correlated with other, well-dated West Antarctic ice cores to obtain a local chronology and date the unconformities. The goal of this exploratory work is to provide data that complement the results from subglacial rock cores to better constrain surface-elevation change, including both retreat and readvance, since the last interglacial.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Recent changes in the Polar regions such as atmospheric warming, permafrost thaw, sea ice decline, and glacier retreat, are having global impacts. Understanding these Polar changes and predicting their future global impacts require a wide range of future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Unfortunately, less than 25% of high school students in the United States receive Earth systems science training and Polar studies represents a very small component of what is taught. Additionally, the majority of Earth systems societal challenges disproportionately impact low income and underrepresented populations, yet there is a significant deficiency in the number of underrepresented students receiving training within these fields. In fact, most Earth systems science programs lack gender, ethnic, and economic diversity. Effective environmental solutions require communication between scientists, policy-makers, and the public, and must also support all communities, in particular, those most at risk. The project aims to help remedy gaps in Polar STEM education by developing new opportunities for underrepresented high school students to engage in real Polar STEM education in the classroom and via field experiences. Additionally, the project aims to train teachers in high schools to integrate Polar STEM experiences in their classrooms to increase Polar STEM literacy within the United States.

The researchers specifically propose to help fill the gaps in Polar Earth systems science education within the United States by developing a collaborative consortium of education programs including the University of Maine, Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), and several Department of Education funded Upward Bound Programs across the United States to offer 1) new project-based field opportunities in Polar STEM for high school students from low income or first generation college families, 2) teacher training in Polar Earth systems sciences 3) help to teachers developing high school lessons using authentic Polar STEM data, and 4) research focused on determining if our field and classroom education program improves teaching and high-school student learning about Polar environments. This project will specifically support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, of underrepresented students within the Polar geosciences and help develop a more diverse and representative next generation of science leaders in more communities across the United States.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.