Outreach
Through outreach we aim to share climate science and polar research with a range of audiences and communities. If you are interested in having us do a presentation at your school or organization, please contact Vasilii Petrenko at vpetrenk@ur.rochester.edu. We look forward to working with you!
Check out our Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Field blog here!
Examples of Outreach Events
For Mendon Center Elementary’s STEM day (May 2024), we did an ice core activity with MCE’s 4th and 5th graders. We constructed ice cores by freezing water, coffee grounds, and plastic bugs inside Pringles cans. Then students make observations about their ice cores, and discussed what climate info their ice cores were preserving. They had a great time exploring (and smashing) the ice cores! If you’d like to do a similar activity with your classroom, the lesson plan is linked here: https://byrd.osu.edu/create-classroom-ice-cores
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In August 2022, Katie, Tom and Haoran gave a presentation to Weld County, CO about the geologic methane project. Check out the powerpoint here!
In July 2018, the Earth Science Department at University of Rochester hosted a group of 20 middle school day campers from the Rochester Museum and Science Center's Next Level Science Camp. Campers visited 7 different labs within the department and got to hear about all of the places we go to collect samples and the instruments & techniques involved to analyze them. For our tour, we brought the students into the -26C freezer, showed them what ice cores look like and explained how ice cores are formed and what we can learn from analyzing them. We also brought them to our instrument lab, and showed the complex glass extraction systems used to analyze small gas samples from ice cores. Finally, we showed them some photos from one of our antarctic expeditions and talked about what living on a glacier for 6 weeks is like. At least one camper said she wants to go to Antarctica to study science!
Students from the Warner School’s Horizons summer camp having an encounter with ancient Antarctic ice.
Peter talking to students at the Odyssey School of Denver about Antarctic ice cores.
Peter facilitating conversations about climate science at the "Ask a Scientist Table" at the Brighton Farmer's Market. May 2017
ICEBERGS event at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., July 2016.
900 people attended this hands on "behind the scenes" event to at the National Building Museum to learn more about the ICEBERGS exhibit and to speak with scientists and researchers from the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), NASA Goddard, and the University of Rochester about polar research, monitoring sea ice, and exploring climate history through ice.
A visit to Cobbles Elementary in Penfield
