Polar Research Education, Outreach and Communication during the fourth IPY: How the 2007–2008 International Polar Year has contributed to the future of education, outreach and communication.

One year after the launch of the International Polar Year (IPY) Education, Outreach and Communication (EOC) Assessment Project the task of inventorying and investigating the hundreds of IPY EOC programmes that occurred during the IPY 2007-08 is now complete. Supported by APECS, IASC and SCAR, this ICSU funded project is the only global examination of what happened in outreach during IPY. The latest IPY event was one of the most ambitious polar research programmes to date, tens of thousands of scientists and students participated, but IPY also set out to involve members of the general public in active polar science endeavours on a global scale. How successful was this part of the IPY plan? With over 550 IPY EOC activities, from more than 70 countries in 25 languages IPY EOC is one of the largest global investments in science outreach to date. The IPY EOC Assessment brought together educators, communications personnel and researchers and the resulting report examines the success of IPY EOC efforts, and discusses why IPY EOC was able to reach its goals and beyond. From the experience of IPY, the report also outlines a set of lessons learned on how to improve science outreach across a variety of disciplines. These lessons will be useful for other science outreach projects - large or small - regional, national or international. IPY EOC went to new heights, depths and extremes to take people to the poles and to take the poles to the people. Now the legacy of IPY outreach is helping to shape the future of science education and outreach. You can also search the online Polar Outreach Catalogue - a growing inventory of these IPY projects and new outreach efforts to help educate the world about the global importance of the polar regions. http://apecs.is/education-outreach/catalogu

Youth Action Research in the Marine Environment: A Case Study Analysis of Selected Education Projects in Hawaiʻi, USA

PhD University of Hawaii at Manoa 2003Includes bibliographical references (leaves 375–381).The marine environment has always been extremely important to the human inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands. Today, the ocean environment around Hawaiʻi is no less important, but it is far more threatened. Coastal and urban development, overfishing, introduction of alien species, and other commercial and recreational uses pose serious risks to coastal and marine ecosystems. There is a recognized need for greater public awareness and understanding of the importance of marine and coastal ecosystems. Involving children actively in the care and management of community resources is an essential factor for long-term societal change in environmental attitudes and behavior. Agencies and organizations in Hawaiʻi offer a wide range of marine education programs and materials aimed at children. However, there has been little assessment of their overall effectiveness, or analysis of factors that encourage or impede their success. The goal of this research was to begin to address this gap. The first stage of the research examined the perceptions and attitudes of Hawaiʻi resource managers and educators toward youth involvement in coastal and marine protection, and to answer the question "What is currently being done and by whom?" The second stage examined in detail three different programs that represent a range of approaches and age levels, and include two public charter schools (one elementary and one high school) and a nonprofit after-school program that drew youth from four area high schools. The case study research was conducted over the course of the 2001-2002 school year by means of observations, participant-observations, interviews, focus groups, and reviews of written and electronic media. The case studies were exploratory in nature and differed in their settings, age groups, administration, size, and focus. However, an analysis using the assessment rubric revealed broad patterns common to all three projects. This allowed the development of analytical generalizations that have both theoretical and practical implications for the future of similar programs, both in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere, and that help identify important questions for future research