Follow an international team of scientists from over twenty countries who embark on an epic year-long expedition to the Central Arctic, MOSAiC. The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) team froze the German Icebreaker R/V Polarstern into the sea ice for a year. For a year, the team drifts with an ice floe and strives to understand the Arctic climate system and its future.
Emily Geraghty Ward is a Research Associate in the Center for Education, Engagement and Evaluation (CEEE) at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. A geoscientist by training and a former geology professor, Emily is interested in the design and assessment of geoscience college curricula and discipline-based education research and evaluation.
Drifting North Polar Planetarium is a collection of lessons, activities, one of two planetarium films and an optional field trip to Fiske or your local planetarium to view the film. These lessons can be used in the classroom before and after watching the film.
View all the MOSAiC Expedition Drifting North resources
Classroom Lessons from the above unit:
Introduction to the MOSAiC Expedition - Learn about the conditions in the Arctic and the scientists who study them through slides, audio podcast, and a worksheet.
Letters to the Arctic - The film and multimedia project Letters To The Arctic asked scientists to share their narratives and get personal about their relationship with the ice. Explore these letters with your students and prompt them to share their narrative about our ever-changing environment.
Seasons and Light in the Arctic - This activity explores why we have seasons and changing daylight throughout the year by graphing different daylight hours around the world. Students will have the opportunity to explore why the Arctic’s seasons and daylight are different from other places in the world.
Sea Ice, The Character (lab) - Compare and contrast the different structures of freshwater ice and seawater ice in this hands-on lab. Learn about what makes sea ice so unique in the Arctic.
