Dear Educators, Parents and caregivers:
Welcome to PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA, a unique multiple media teaching and learning package that will help you enliven key Earth, Life and Physical science concepts, and excite your young charges through the exploration of one of the most unique and exciting places on the planet.
If you're new to PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE, this on-line orientation will introduce you to the full set of resources P2K offers. If you've already purchased the videotapes and on-line subscription, this is your gateway to unique information and interactive opportunities.
"But I don't teach Antarctica!" That is, of course, true. And with an increasing emphasis on state and district testing, you may even feel you have no latitude (sic) to use this kind of material. Relax: you can legitimately tell your Administration that whether you teach earth science, ecology or biology, space, physical or general science, PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA will help you introduce, explain and simulate such key concepts as:
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• the forces which make weather and climate
• food webs, and competition and cooperation
• the recycling of matter and the transfer of energy through an ecosystem
• adaptation through natural selection
• the physical conditions and planetary processes which shape biomes
• plate tectonics and volcanism
• why fossils and the rock record reveal Earth's climate history
• how physiology at a cellular level can help organisms survive extremes
• how Earth's atmosphere impedes or facilitates astronomy
• the variety of researchers and research techniques needed to study natural environments and living organisms
• the personal characteristics and satisfactions of scientific research on the frontiers of knowledge...
and much, much more. As you review this on-line introduction you'll discover that each set of videos, activities and on-line resources touch on similarly important concepts which are, almost certainly, what you are already mandated to teach. (If you want to know more about PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA and to order some or all of its suite of resources, visit GPN.)
Good luck with implementing PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA. We hope to hear of your success in exciting students about science concepts that will help them academically and also inspire them with the challenging, beautiful and instructive continent of Antarctica. Perhaps one day some of your students will follow in the footsteps of the adventurous explorers they'll encounter in the videos, and send back reports that will inspire a whole new generation of curious minds.
PASSPORT TO ANTARCTICA
Geoff Haines-Stiles, Project Director
Erna Akuginow, Executive in Charge
Pat Haddon, Instructional Materials Consultant
Eileen Bendixsen, P2K On-line Moderator
2001-2002 school year
