PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE: LIVE FROM THE POLES

LIVE FROM THE POLES HEADER

A PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE SPECIAL

Debuting as part of NSF's 17th annual National Science and Technology Week, whose theme this year is: POLAR CONNECTIONS: EXPLORING THE WORLD'S NATURAL LABORATORIES.

LIVE FROM THE POLES was aired live on participating public television stations and NASA-TV (subject to shuttle missions and other agency events) at: 13:00 hours Eastern, Tuesday April 28, 1998.

During the live broadcast of LIVE FROM THE POLES, a panel of researchers individually answered e-mail questions submitted during the program, and for the hour immediately following.

sunset at the pole

LIVE FROM THE POLES featured real-time interaction between students in the US and researchers at America's South Pole station, youngsters at the Imaginarium in Anchorage, Alaska, scientists and polar experts from the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center and NSF's Office of Polar Programs, live on camera in Washington, DC, at the National Museum of Natural History. Viewers of the live program were also able to send in questions via the Internet and have them answered in close to real time during the program and for the hour following. Documentary sequences from the Smithsonian's unparalleled film archive of Arctic peoples and places, and from PTK's two field seasons in the Antarctic showed the similarities and differences of these two unique and fascinating environments. Yupic elder Paul John explained, through a translator, something of the meaning of the clothing and art work of the North, and Arctic Studies Center director, William Fitzhugh, showed close-ups of canoes and hunting tools. From the South Pole, Katy Jensen answered questions about the ozone hole, and students met many others of the 28 hardy souls spending the southern winter at the literal end of the Earth. Viewers saw science and technology at work--both the traditional knowledge of the North which has made human survival here possible for millennia, and the innovations which have allowed 20th Century explorers and researchers to be able for the first time to endure the extremes of Antarctica. Science and technology with a human face -- REAL SCIENCE, REAL SCIENTISTS, REAL LOCATIONS, REAL TIME.

System Requirements: A World Wide Web Browser
Access: LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA (LFA):; http://passport.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica/; LIVE FROM ANTARCTICA 2:; http://passport.arc.nasa.gov/antarctica2/; (Students may be particularly interested in reading Field Journals in LFA from Katy McNitt, Katy Jensen's former name.)
Additional Information: For a free NSTW Teacher's Guide, contact NSF via e-mail at nstw@nsf.gov, or go online to find a NSTW regional site near you.; http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nstw/; Extensive background on the Antarctic may be found on the sites originally developed to support two earlier PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE electronic field trips.

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LIVE FROM THE POLES is supported by NSF, NASA, public television, and other public and private collaborators.