Global Warming 101

Bring your students to the frontlines of climate change in the Arctic where glaciers are melting, polar bears are drowning, and Inuit villagers are struggling to survive.

By Cindy Long

This Earth Day, your students can experience global warming firsthand by joining the 2007 Baffin Island Expedition, led by Arctic explorer Will Steger. Steger is leading a team of four American explorers and educators and three Canadian Inuit hunters between remote Inuit villages to hear and record the stories of the Inuit people facing very real changes with the warming of the Arctic.

Sea ice and glaciers are melting, shortening the Inuit hunting season by months, and villagers are struggling to hold on to their traditional way of life. Daily written, audio and video posts from the team members bring the day-to-day struggles in the Arctic right to your classroom via globalwarming101.com, a website created by the Will Steger Foundation.

Theo Ikummaq, an Inuit hunter and guide on the expedition, writes about the disappearance of more polar bears in the region:   “I started seeing polar bears as soon as I could start seeing into the distance. Probably right from my mothers back…The absence of ice is creating more people and polar bear conflicts, driving them inland more.”

Steger’s team is traveling with Ikummaq and three other Inuit hunters on the 1200-mile, four-month-long dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic’s Baffin Island. With dispatches sent to globalwarming.com, young people around the world can witness firsthand the effects of global warming.

Through dispatches, photographs and maps, the site allows students to feel a deeper connection to the Arctic, witness the current impacts of climate change on people who live with it every day, and be empowered to take action.

Earth Day will mark the 58th day of the team’s journey. Log on to the site to hear about their experiences, see how global warming is affecting the Arctic, and find lesson plans.

Steger’s expedition has teamed up with National Geographic to create a standards-based curriculum for K-12 teachers, including:

• Six interdisciplinary standards-linked Lesson Plans approved by National Geographic Xpeditons and the Union of Concerned Scientists.  These lesson plans explain global climate change processes, the global significance of warming in the Arctic, regional impacts of global warming, potential solutions and courses of action. 
• Ten discussion starters to help students develop critical thinking skills and learn to engage in respectful and informed debate about global warming.
• K-12 Standards-linked Classroom Activities developed by teachers at Jefferson Community School, A K-8 public school in Minneapolis emphasizing adventure learning and the environment, and by participants in the Steger Summer Institute for Climate Change Education.
• Links to additional educational resources. 

Related Content:

Globalwarming101.com
Learn more about Steger, the expedition and global warming.

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