IPY Summer Institute

“Environmental Studies in the Boreal Forest Zone,” a two-week International Polar Year (IPY) Summer Institute for graduate students/early career scientists and K-12 teachers, will take place July 16–28, 2007 in the Central Biosphere Forest Reserve in Fedorovskoe, Tver’ Region, Russia.

This Summer Institute is organized by the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in collaboration with the A.N. Severtsov Institute for Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia, and the Central Forest State Nature Biosphere Reserve in Fedorovskoe, Russia, and has been arranged as part of the education/outreach activities of the International Polar Year (IPY) University of Alaska and the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEEPSI). It will provide a unique opportunity for participants to learn about the climate of Northern Eurasia from leading scientists and educators, in a wide spectrum of polar and Earth system science disciplines from meteorology, biology, chemistry, and earth system modeling, and to witness the magic of exploration as they observe and participate in research activities under the guidance of experienced scientists.

Institute participants will include graduate students/early career scientists from six different countries as well as K-12 teachers from Russia. The two groups will join together for several workshop sessions and for the field work components of the Institute. The field work will focus on land–atmosphere interactions in the boreal forest zone, and several field trips in and outside the Forest Reserve are planned to highlight various aspects of studies in this field.

As part of the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) IPY project “Seasons & Biomes” led by Dr. Elena Sparrow, the K-12 teachers will also be instructed in existing GLOBE protocols as well as new protocols created specifically for the Seasons & Biomes project to study interannual variability of seasons in their own biomes. These teachers will then in turn engage their students in earth system science research as a way of involving them in the IPY.

Support for the Summer Institute has been provided by many institutions and organizations including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA; National Science Foundation, USA; Central Biosphere Forest Reserve, Russia; A.N. Severtsov Institute for Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Southern Federal University, Russia; Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Russia; University of Maryland, USA; “Transparent World,” Moscow, Russia; National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan; University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA; GLOBE USA; and GLOBE Russia.

For more information, contact Elena Sparrow esparrow@iarc.uaf.edu

BOOKLET:

Download the 2007 IPY Summer Institute/Summer School Booklet: booklet.pdf (1.1Mb).