Live From Antarctica 2 Calling YOU!

[Jan Wee <jwee@MAIL.ARC.NASA.GOV>]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


IT'S JANUARY 1997...
        AND DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR STUDENTS ARE?

THEY'VE TAKEN SHIP TO ANTARCTICA, WITH "PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE"!
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  .' /     \ `.             JOIN US!
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Announcing "LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2" -- the latest electronic
field trip from the award-winning PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE series

***

        Experience life boat drill on the roughest waters on
        Earth!

        Go study penguins amid the most spectacular scenery on
        Earth!

        Interact with researchers at Earth's most remote
        research laboratory for marine biology and global
        climate change!

        Break down the classroom walls, and connect your
        studies to the real-world using leading edge
        multi-media resources (live telecasts, on-line
        resources, and hands-on print curriculum resources)
        that are EASY to INTEGRATE and HIGHLY MOTIVATING.


***

In the past 2 years, PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE has taken
students on electronic field trips to the South Pole and
McMurdo Station, flown them up into the stratosphere aboard
an infrared observatory, given them ways to get their hands
on the Hubble Space Telescope, and launched them to Mars in
a project extending into 1998!

Now, in January and February 1997, students and teachers
have the chance to voyage back to Antarctica -- this time to
an entirely new site, Palmer Station on the Antarctic
Peninsula, perhaps the most interesting place to study
marine mammals on Earth.

You're invited to travel with us on LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2,
using PTK's unique suite of multimedia resources:

>>>> live, interactive video and tape
>>>> on-line materials providing information, interaction and
        opportunities for collaboration
>>>> printed Teacher's Guide and Kits suggesting hands-on
        discovery activities for school and home, and providing
        extensive background on the field trip
>>>> suggestions to customize the field trip for elementary,
        middle and high school students

This integrated set of learning resources allows students to
experience daily life on a scientific frontier, to interact
with some of the planet's foremost experts on the creatures
and locations they will see, and to simulate key aspects of
the research in engaging and informative activities.

All PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE projects are aligned with the
National Science Education Standards, and provide exemplary
ways to integrate computer technologies and
telecommunications into the regular course of instruction.
The project provides a "pyramid" of opportunities to
teachers and students, facilitating a meaningful
experience from using just video and print, up through
simple e-mail, to higher speed connections allowing CUSeeMe
and other WWW tools. Teachers and Home Schoolers with no
more than a personal e-mail account can still download and
share Field Journals and student projects which will make
Earth's most remote continent come to life. LIVE FROM
ANTARCTICA 2 builds on proven aspects of the previous field trips,
while pushing the envelope and providing innovative opportunities.

VIDEO
3 live videos will be fed over PBS's Telstar 401, and
(subject to Shuttle missions and emergencies) also over NASA-TV
(see below for coordinates.)

***Special note: project evaluation has shown that more than
half the teachers using PTK >>>USE<<< the videos ON TAPE -- but
still consider the original live element extremely
important: no matter your schedule, PTK can bring science to
life for your students, whether truly "live" or "live on
tape"!***

Program 1: "OCEANS, ICE & LIFE" January 23, 1997, 13:00-
14:00 Eastern The chilly waters of Antarctica are --
surprisingly -- even more productive than those of the
tropics: this program shows us how and why. Sail to Palmer
Station aboard the R.V. Polar Duke, across the Drake
Passage, the roughest waters on Earth. During this first
live telecast, from on board ship, meet the researchers who
are studying the interaction of the marine food chain, and
see how life on and in the ocean waxes and wanes along with
the seasonal ice sheets. See how researchers sample the
smallest lifeforms in the ocean, and their connection up the
food chain to seals, penguins and whales.  This program
demonstrates the adaptation of life to such extreme
conditions, and shows how scientists must also adapt their
lives and research techniques to the environment.

Program 2: "THE SECRETS OF SURVIVAL". January 30, 1997,
13:00-14:00 Eastern.  For the fifty researchers and their
support teams who live at Palmer during the Antarctic
summer, commuting to work involves a daily trip from the
relative safety and comfort of the main research
station aboard small Zodiac inflatables out to their
desolate study sites, over waters that would kill in minutes
in the event of an accident. Travel with them, live, to
Torgerson Island, to study Adelie penguins and their newborn
chicks; to Humble and Dream Island to observe the skuas who
prey on them, and find out the fascinating connections
between each season's ice and weather, and which young
creatures will live and die. This program looks at the secrets
of survival for both the wildlife and the human
researchers who journey to the ends of the Earth to study
them.

Program 3: "SEEING THE FUTURE?" February 6, 1997, 13:00-
14:00 Eastern.  Antarctica was the place which first showed
humans the ozone hole, and Palmer Station is one of the key
sites which helps us understand how global climate change
may affect the ecosystem of which we are all part. Palmer is
the only place on the Continent where microscopic plants can
grow on land, and the site of an ambitious Long Term
Ecological Research project seeking to understand the
ongoing interaction of ocean, ice, atmosphere and life.
This program presents the latest on ozone and the effects of
increased ultraviolet radiation, and shows how research in
Antarctica -- and Palmer in particular -- helps us
understand our entire planetary environment.

Satellite Coordinates for all PTK programs:
C-Band: NASA-TV Spacenet: 2, 69 degrees West, transponder 5
channel 9, horizontal, frequency 3880 Mhz, audio on 6.8

Ku-Band: PBS K-12 Teacher Resource Service: Telstar 401,
97 degrees West, transponder 8, horizontal, 11915 Mhz,
audio on 6.2 and 6.8


ON-LINE

LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2 will provide an integrated range of
resources, adaptable to many different teaching and learning
environments. The project supports the simplest to the most
advanced connectivity with innovative materials, such as:

>>>> the full text and graphics of the printed Teacher's
        Guide, extensive factual information about Antarctica
        and links to the most interesting, beautiful and
        bizarre Web sites dealing with the Ice

>>>> e-mail discussion lists for teachers and students

>>>> a weekly Update providing the latest information
        about LFA 2 and tips for successful implementation

>>>> text only Field Journals and Researcher Q&A providing a
        personal perspective on living and working on the
        continent, and a chance for questions from students,
        with answers returned directly by researchers in the
        field and other experts

>>>> WebChats and CUSeeMe sessions with the researchers,
        linking Antarctica directly with classrooms across America

>>>> scripts of the videos, and an extensive image archive
        a Gallery of student work

>>>>...and more!

(See below for details about how to register, and sign up
for LFA 2's on-line resources.)

PRINT AND MULTIMEDIA
A 64 page Teacher's Guide provides all an educator needs to
implement LFA 2. From satellite coordinates, vocabulary,
descriptions of the videos, backgrounders on the Continent
and its lifeforms, a glossary -- even a list of the URL's
designed to get you excited and on-line -- the guide
provides an easy-to-use "passport" to this unique learning
adventure.  Previous Guides have been rated very high in
quality, and cited as being the best of their kind. The
Guide comes packaged with an original LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2
full-color poster. featuring Palmer's wildlife and scenery.

The LFA 2 Teacher's Kit provides more extensive materials,
to enhance and extend the learning experience for teachers
and students: it includes the Guide, the LFA 2 poster,
black-line masters for all student Activities, an oversize
map of Antarctica with a detailed insert on the Palmer
Peninsula, 2 VHS videos (one excerpting NSF's orientation
tapes for actual US Antarctic Program participants, and one
using PTK's extensive archive of footage to background the
continent and what it's like to live and work there), 5
copies of NSF/CTW's fact-filled, student-oriented color
brochure, "Antarctica", 5 copies of NSF's guide to
Antarctica and its research stations, a briefing book and
color flyer.


TO FIND OUT MORE... AND TO ORDER SUPPORT MATERIALS

(1) ON-LINE
To register your interest in the Live From Antarctica 2
project, send an e-mail to: <jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov>

Indicate: Your full name, school, position, grade level,
        number of students participating, and your preferred
        snail mail address.

You will be added to our LFA 2 mail list and receive
up-dated information about the project.

Check out our Web Site at:
        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/index.html

(2) PRINT AND MULTIMEDIA
To order the Teacher's Guide, send $10.00 (checks made out
to PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE)
or
to order the Teacher's Kit, send $99.00 (checks made out to
PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE) to:

PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE/LFA2
P.O. Box 1502
Summit, New Jersey 07902-1502

School districts and other institutions may submit Purchase
Orders. No credit cards, please.

FOR ALL CANADIAN ORDERS: please note your orders will be accepted **ONLY
if submitted as International drafts drawn in U.S. funds***.
Canadian Orders only: Teacher's Guide =$17.00.  Teacher's Kit =$112.00

Other international orders: please e-mail Jan Wee
at jwee@mail.arc.nasa.gov  for pricing details.


(3) WANT TO KNOW MORE?
For more information about all PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE
projects, past, current and future, go on-line to...

        http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/interactive

or call the PTK Information Hotline at:
1-800-626-LIVE (1-800-626-5483).  Select Mailbox #7 for
updated information about Live From Antarctica 2.


"BROUGHT TO YOU BY..."PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE "LIVE FROM
ANTARCTICA 2" is supported in part by the National Science
Foundation and the Office of Polar Programs, with satellite
telecommunications made possible by NASA's ACTS Satellite
Experiments Program. The on-line and live video portions of
the field trip are partially underwritten by NASA and NSF
and are free to educators.

PBS Teacher Resource Services supports PTK with satellite
time and information and outreach services to PBS stations.
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR BOTH PBS AND NASA-TV CARRIAGE! PTK
cannot guarantee local broadcast schedules.

***