We officially started our preparation phase in May 2016, all the activities for schools are available starting from January 2017. The project will last until April 2019, whereas activities for schools will be offered till February 2019.
EDU-ARCTIC is an EU-funded project focused on using Arctic research as a vehicle to strengthen science education curricula across Europe. It aims to encourage students aged 13 to 20 to pursue further education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
EDU-ARCTIC uses a mix of different tools to offer a fresh approach to teaching STEM subjects, including:
- online webinar lessons in virtual classrooms with polar scientists;
- a “citizen science” environmental monitoring programme;
- teacher training and workshops;
- the online “Polarpedia” portal;
- a chance for students to win a trip to an Arctic research station
The EDU-ARCTIC Consortium would like to highlight how STEM education is important and to draw attention to a beautiful and unique part of the world – the Arctic.
The Arctic needs well-trained professional work-force with right scientific and technical skills to help the region grow and prosper in a sustainable way. What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. Conducting scientific research in the Arctic is necessary to understand how these changes are going to affect our everyday lives.
There are no responsibilities for teachers and schools. You may take part at any actvity proposed online on voluntary bases. The only thing, we request is sending us some feedback by filling in the evaluation surveys. But it is also not compulsory. Please, read the Rules of participation.
Filling in the survey is not compulsory for any user. However, feedback gathered from the survey heps us to improve our project and assess, if it is effective. Therefore, we appreciate each survey, filled in by you. You will also get EDU-points for each survey.
No, there is no need for that. Although we encourage you to speak to your headmaster and present the EDU-ARCTIC portal. This may be beneficial for other teachers and educators and school itself. EDU-ARCTIC provides many interesting activities.
The primary goal of EDU-ARCTIC is to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education among students aged 13 - 20, by providing an innovative and attractive educational programme accessible to schools all across Europe.
Students participating in the project will have the unique possibility to get to know what scientific careers research disciplines are like while learning how to apply scientific methods and developping crucial problem-solving skills.
We encourage you to check and register here.
If you are looking for more information or you are interested in educational cooperation please check Contacts. You can contact our team in partners' countries and obtain information in a number of national languages.
EDU-ARCTIC registration procedure is open for teachers, educators and all educational institutions. If you are a student (aged 13-20), please ask your teacher to register here and benefit from the EDU-ARCTIC program.
Please press Registration and fill in the form.
Please look for the Forgot password link on the login page. We will ask you to enter your e-mail address, and we will send you a message with a link to reset your password.
Firstly, you should always receive an activation email once registered on EDU-ARCTIC portal. If you have not, please check the following:
- Please check for any typos in your email address while registering on the EDU-ARCTIC portal;
- Please check your spam or junk mail folder;
- Your spam filter might have blocked an activation email – please add no-reply@edu-arctic.eu to your e-mail contacts or approved senders list;
- You may also try the Resend confirmation instructions procedure;
- You may have your account already. Please try registering with the same e-mail again and look for a message error with explanation;
- If the problem continues, please contact Support and ask for assistance. Please note that the support office will ask if you have checked all the above. Please mention that while contacting EDU-ARCTIC support.
Many problems with registration, login, or access to EDU-ARCTIC modules may be caused by browser issues. Here are some things to try:
- Make sure your browser is a current version of Chrome, Firefox, IE or Safari;
- Check your browser settings to make sure both cookies and JavaScript are activated;
- Clear your browser's cache.
This should help. If you still encounter technical problems please contact Support and ask for assistance. Please be as specific as possible as this will speed up procedures.
No, there is no need for that. Although we encourage you to speak to your headmaster and present the EDU-ARCTIC portal. This may be beneficial for other teachers and educators and school itself. EDU-ARCTIC provides many interesting activities.
Yes you can, if you represent a few schools or educational institutions. You should know however that your e-mail address provided during registration for one school or institution is unique (it is your login). If you teach in several schools or should you be a member of various educational institutions you can register several times using different e-mail addresses related to specific institutions.
Please press Support, elaborate on issues you are having and await assistance. We are here to help.
Once you have registered for any one online lesson you should see a message posted to you below containing confirmation info including a link ready to be used. Once you follow that link, you will be redirected to the virtual classroom just before the lesson. Please check that prior to the time given in Online lesson details. You may have to perform some very easy technical settings in order to fully participate. Do not worry. The message will guide you through all the stages.
If you can’t see any link, you should check your e-mail regularly as we will send that link to you directly.
If this doesn’t work, please contact Support. We are ready to help.
None. It is free of charge. Our mission consists in providing interesting online lessons, that’s all.
All you need to do is to get your internet access, as well as an internet camera to have you and your pupils ready for virtual classes. These are the only requirements.
Students can observe and collect data on weather conditions near their school, as well as other natural phenomena such as snow ice and ice cover, bird migration, flowering of local plant species, etc. Teachers can upload the data they collect to the EDU-ARCTIC portal. Data uploaded to the web portal is publicly available to all participants everywhere.
Teachers can make use of the data available on the portal to teach a wide variety of subject matters, including biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. All schools in Europe are encouraged to participate in this monitoring programme.
The data collected by students from the observations they perform at their schools, in conjunction with data from the polar research stations available on the web portal helps students develop skills in drawing conclusions from data-sets and devise hypotheses to explain the phenomena they observe.
The monitoring system not only helps students to develop skills necessary to advance in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but it also increases young people’s awareness of and interest in their surrounding environment and helps to gain a holistic understanding of global environmental issues.
If particular species is not observed in your surroundings, you may just leave the box empty, but still provide other information.
Monitoring system allows to provide only one report from each point (each school). Therefore, we encourage you to make an internal agreement with other teachers from your school on schedule of reporting. Remember, that observations should be conducted by your students. Teachers are only reporting.
No. You are reporting only the FIRST OBSERVATION IN THE YEAR. If you have already reported any bird or insect, you do not need to report it again in coming reports. The next time will be in the next year.
There might be two reasons for such situation:
1) reports are possible on Monday (preferably) or Tuesday by the latest. Only your first ever report may be done anytime. If it is not the first report, the system will not allow you to provide data on other days than Mondays or Tuesdays.
2) System accepts only one report per week from one localisation. If there are more than one teacher from the same school, only one report will be accepted. In such a case, you make prepare an internal schedule of reporting for your school.
Some meteorological parameters in the monitoring system are reported as actual values (on Monday at 12.00 your local time). If we want to compare these data, we need to have observations from the same day. Therefore we ask you to report on Mondays, or Tuesdays. Reporting on Tuesday, please remember to provide data accurate for the previous day.
Moreover, if we want to prepare students for future career as e.g. meteorologist, environmental observer, etc. we may show them, that this kind of time discipline is necessary.
- Example 1: Matthew Velderrain was the winner of 2012 Arctic Innovation Junior Competition, with the invention: The Thermal Suit - A snowsuit with face mask, gloves, and snow boots which is also heated by thermal wires. See more.
- Example 2: Ian Kenaston was the winner of 2016 Arctic Innovation Junior Competition, with the invention: Easy Transplant Pot - The Easy Transplant Pot is a simple, reusable pot that would make home growing of plants for food or decoration easier. When the plant grows and it becomes time to transplant, vertical latches on the sides of the pots can be undone and the plant, roots, and dirt will easily come out. This idea also won the JR Division Fan Favorite Award.
No, each edition is announced separately. For details on dates see information on our website.
If it is an essay, it must be max. 7500 characters (+illustrations and pictures).
Video has to be less than 5 min. long, it can also be an animation.
Poster has to be an original artwork poster.
No. You are submitting a proposal for a research project and the project does not need to be implemented or conducted by the end of the competition. If it is possible and practical to work with the project on the expedition, the expedition leader will take this into account.
In order to send your full project, please log in on EDU-ARCTIC portal, visit section "Profile" and go to your application. Then, search for: "If you want to add or change your project, please click here" sentence. There is a hyperlink at the end of that sentence and it will allow you to send your full project. Send your full project using the attachment button. Please remember that for the edition 2018 the full project submission deadline is: 2018-03-15 12:00:00 UTC.
The student can participate in the Arctic competition if he or she turns 13 years old before the expedition in August 2018.
You may see the graphic "Curiousity-method for research project", which explaines the steps.
You may search on your own in Internet. Below you will find the links to the partners’ websites.
The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research - NIBIO and Svanhovd Station
Institute of Geophysics PAS (Poland) and Polish Polar Station Hornsund
Jardfeingi (Faroe Islands)
Arctic Portal - Iceland and Karholl Aurora Observatory
We also encourage you to take part in online lessons. Then you will have the opportunity to find more about research conducted at stations and ask scientists about their work or the biggest challenges, they face in their work. The list of online lessons you may find here.
No, it just has to be related to the Arctic.
After registration you gain access to all our activities. Please check RULES OF PARITICIPATION which explain the competition in detail, including competition schedule and tips. Generally, The Arctic Competition is for teams of one student, age 13 to 20, and one teacher as a mentor. Participating teams can come from secondary schools across Europe or beyonde. Each team develops a project in one of these categories: “innovation project” or “research project”. The important dates of each edition and each stage are announced on the website. Applications will be submitted online on the portal. Uploading of the summary of the project is the first stage, whereas the full proposals must be submitted in the second stage before the deadline given on the website. In each edition, 6 teams can win a polar expedition to one of the Arctic stations participating in the project. In 2017 3 teams went to Faroe Island and another 3 to Iceland. In 2018 winners will go to Svanhovd (Norway) and Hornsund (Spitsbergen). At these locations the participants will join a 10–14 day long Arctic expedition and take part in field work conducted in the area.
Yes, but it is the teacher that submits your application via the EDU-ARCTIC portal.
The Arctic competition engages pupils from secondary schools across Europe and beyond. The Arctic competition is for pupils and their teachers as mentors. Please visit Arctic competitions module and seek for more information.
Prototype is not obligatory.
(1 team consist of 1 teacher and 1 student, but the teacher can be in many teams).
Yes.
It is required that before the submission teacher obtains consent form for participation in the Arctic Competitions. There are two templates (one to be chosen, depending on the student's age). If a student is an adult, please, use the template for students. If a student is a minor, please use the template for legal guardians.
Please, keep the signed papers till the end of the competition. Signed documents from winners will be needed.
If your student wins, we will request for sending an electronic copy of the signed consent form.
Yes, all submissions must be made in English. Also, the on-line interview with finalists will be conducted in English. Its obligatory for the student and the teacher to communicate well in English.
The full project should be sent using the attachment button. Size of a sent project should be up to max 100 MB. This is important especially for the Video. If you face any problems and your project is much bigger than given size, please contact edu-arctic@american-systems.com.pl. We will assist you with that.