Originally posted: February 2011
On February 16th, more than 30 Puget-sound area teachers gathered together at the Pacific Science Center for a workshop organized by the World Affairs Council. Global Classroom was excited to partner with Nadine Fabbi, Associate Director, Canadian Studies Program (UW Jackson School of International Studies) and Zeta Strickland, education manager from Pacific Science Center for this three-hour program.
Both speakers encouraged teachers to grapple with the question (and title of the workshop) “The Arctic: Who Owns it and How Long Will it be There?” Nadine provided an hour presentation on policy formation by the eight Arctic nations and the unique role of Canada’s Inuit in Arctic governance. The evening ended with a visit to the NOAA designed “Science On a Sphere.” Teachers discovered how this room-size tool could be used to illustrate climate change, ocean temperatures, and other environmental and topographical information.
Participating teachers also received a 40-some page resource packet, a Canadian buffet dinner, and three clock hours. The evaluation responses were incredibly positive. In fact one teacher wrote: “A whole day (workshop) would have been awesome!”
About 40 local educators attended the workshop on the future of the Arctic.
Workshop information:
http://www.world-affairs.org/calendar.cfm?eventID=1379&action=eventDetails
In a few weeks, the resource packet will be available on line here:
http://www.world-affairs.org/globalclassroom/resourcepackets.htm
The Global Classroom program connects teachers and students with international resources, ideas, and people through a combination of professional development trainings, speaker series, curriculum design, and youth programs. The Arctic: Who Owns It and How Long will it be There, was one of a dozen teacher workshops that the World Affairs Council organizes every year.
This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, US Department of Education, Office of International Education Programs Service.