This free, standards-based website developed for elementary teachers provides hand-picked, reviewed, on-line resources to enhance teacher content knowledge regarding reasons for the seasons.

This article describes how polar scientists collect ice cores from ice sheets and glaciers and how they use these cores to learn about Earth's past climate.

This article discusses the strategy of using discrepant events in elementary science instruction. It includes links to four video clips of the sun's path in the Arctic or Antarctica.

This article provides ideas and lessons on how elementary teachers can integrate webcams from the Arctic and Antarctica into their teaching. Five webcams are highlighted as well as three lessons on writing poetry and observing animal behavior.

Antarctica weather can change quickly. Weddell seal field researchers work in all kinds of weather--sometimes mild and beautiful, sometimes windy and challenging. All in a good day's field work with the Montana State University Weddell seal research team working in the Erebus Bay area of Antarctica's Ross Sea. Video production by Mary Lynn Price. Additional footage by Jessica Farrer. More information at http://WeddellSealScience.com.

Ecologists are investigating whether Weddell seal pups that spend more time in the water learning to swim with their moms have a higher chance of surviving to return and have pups of their own. Weddell seals live all their lives in Antarctica, and are the southernmost mammal in the world. Weddell moms spend a lot of time with their pups coaxing them into the cold Antarctic water and helping them learn to swim. Footage includes interviews with Montana State University ecology professors Bob Garrott and Jay Rotella. Video production by Mary Lynn Price. Additional footage by Jessica Farrer, Jesse DeVoe, Henry Kaiser, Rob Robbins, and Steve Rupp.

Ecologists are investigating whether Weddell seal pups that spend more time in the water learning to swim with their moms have a higher chance of surviving to return and have pups of their own. Weddell seals live all their lives in Antarctica, and are the southernmost mammal in the world. Weddell moms spend a lot of time with their pups coaxing them into the cold Antarctic water and helping them learn to swim. Footage includes interviews with Montana State University ecology professors Bob Garrott and Jay Rotella. Video production by Mary Lynn Price. Additional footage by Jessica Farrer, Jesse DeVoe, Henry Kaiser, Rob Robbins, and Steve Rupp. More information at http://WeddellSealScience.com.

Abstract: This video explores individual variation found among Weddell seals, and what those differences might mean for the future of this southernmost mammal on Earth, living in the most pristine marine environment remaining on our planet. The video features interviews on location in the Erebus Bay area of Antarctica's Ross Sea with ecologists Jay Rotella, Bob Garrott, Thierry Chambert, and Jesse DeVoe of the Weddell seal population project research team. Also featured is some truly spectacular underwater footage by Henry Kaiser, courtesy of Jo-Ann Mellish and Project B-470 (NMFS Permit No. 15478 and ACA 2003-12), and lots of Weddell puppies and moms filmed by Mary Lynn Price and other members of the B-009 Weddell research team. The video was edited and produced by Mary Lynn Price. This project video is made possible with funding and support from the National Science Foundation, and the assistance of the United States Antarctic Program. Produced in association with Montana State University.

Every springtime in Antarctica Weddell seals return to Erebus Bay to give birth and raise their new pups. And every year a team of researchers and graduate students based at Montana State University returns to Antarctica to study the ecology of these iconic marine predators in this nearly pristine marine environment. This video features interviews with ecologists Robert Garrott and Jay Rotella, professors in the Ecology Department at Montana State University, and MSU graduate student Jen Mannas. Video production by Mary Lynn Price. More information at http://WeddellSealScience.com.

The resilient Weddell seals of Erebus Bay in Antarctica's Ross Sea, and how they responded to a massive iceberg event that blocked access to some of their pupping areas in the past decade. These seals are the southernmost mammal on Earth, and are the subject of one of the longest running population studies ever of a long-lived mammal.

Video includes interviews filmed in Antarctica with Montana State University ecologists Jay Rotella, Bob Garrott, and Thierry Chambert. Footage and images contributed by Mary Lynn Price, Henry Kaiser, Jay Rotella, Bob Garrott, Don Siniff, Gillian Hadley, Rob Robbins, Steve Rupp, Jesse DeVoe, Glenn Stauffer, Jessica Farrer, Jen Mannas, and Thierry Chambert. Video editing by Mary Lynn Price. Opening music composed by Darren Roberts, piano by Rachel Carlson.

A preview of this video first screened at the 2012 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Special Cultural Event Program in Portland, Oregon. More info on the Weddell seal population study project at http://WeddellSealScience.com.

Antarctica weather can change quickly. Weddell seal field researchers work in all kinds of weather--sometimes mild and beautiful, sometimes windy and challenging. All in a good day's field work with the Montana State University Weddell seal research team working in the Erebus Bay area of Antarctica's Ross Sea. Video production by Mary Lynn Price. Additional footage by Jessica Farrer. More information at http://WeddellSealScience.com.

This article highlights children's literature about weather and climate, the polar regions, and climate change for use in the elementary classroom.

This article explains the difference between weather and climate, the role of the polar regions in the global climate system, and how climate change is affecting these areas. Links to content knowledge resources and the National Science Education Standards are provided.

In this week-long unit, students examine weather reports from all over the world in order to understand global temperature patterns. Throughout the unit, students collect their findings in a portfolio. The comprehensive curriculum materials contain teacher tools, a Web activity in which students examine 12 months of weather data for several U.S. cities, comparing their findings with the same 12 months at Antarctica weather stations, two hands-on experiments, two Q&A interviews and a student handout with guidance for putting together their portfolios and examples of creative final projects.

In this lesson, students investigate various factors that can lead to surface ice melt in Antarctica by pairing a scientific mindset with hands-on exploration of datasets.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Scientists recently set out to answer a seemingly straightforward question “Where is the coldest place on Earth?” They found that there really is no single “coldest place” But a region near the highest part of East Antarctica's ice plateau has areas that reliably reach the limit for Earth’s lowest temperature Air temperatures in this region can be as low as -94°C or -138°F But only when conditions are just right The sky has to be clear, and the air extremely dry which allows the heat to radiate from the snow into space until it reaches nearly -140°F at this level, heat radiating back from the clear air itself slows the cooling to a standstill When these conditions occur near the highest part of the Antarctic ice sheet they lay the foundation for the lowest naturally occurring temperatures possible on Earth Scambos, et al. Ultralow Surface Temperatures in East Antarctica From Satellite Thermal Infrared Mapping: The Coldest Places on Earth..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.