About the Program

Providing participants the opportunity to expand their knowledge of Earth’s climate record through analysis of paleo-climate records in ice cores collected by the U.S. Ice Drilling Program.

2023 School of Ice Applications are Open!

Apply HERE for the 2023 School of Ice at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH

WHEN?
  • Summer 2023: June 18-23, 2023
  • Summers 2024-2028: TBD
 
WHERE?
  • 2023: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
  • 2024-2028: Oregon State University, COLDEX

If you have questions, contact Louise Huffman.

APPLY FOR THE 2023 SCHOOL OF ICE HERE

Who?
You are eligible to attend if:

  • Your institution is on one of the following U.S. Department of Education lists:
  • Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  • Hispanic Serving Institutions
  • Tribal Colleges and Universities
  • Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
  • Or your accredited post-secondary institution can document a minority enrollment of at least 25%

Participants will be provided airfare and travel support, four nights’ lodging, meals, and class materials.

Why?
Our nation faces serious challenges when attracting young people to science and its related careers. This is particularly true for members of groups under-represented in STEM and for minority college students majoring in the geosciences.

To address these issues, School of Ice partners have created a rigorous professional development workshop for faculty from minority-serving institutions (MSIs). This program will train participants to understand paleo-climate evidence derived from ice cores and to acquire the skills necessary to bring this exciting inquiry into new and existing Earth and environmental science classes on their campuses.

The experiential nature of this workshop will build background knowledge of cutting edge research and empower participants to communicate authentic paleo-climate research practices, ice core data, and results to their students.

Program Commitments
Within two weeks of workshop completion, participants will be expected to:

  • Write a summary of how they have professionally benefited from participation in this workshop.

Within a semester of workshop completion, participants will be expected to:

  • Write a plan of action to begin or expand paleo-climate study and research opportunities for their undergraduate students.
  • Demonstrate how they will integrate workshop information and climate change curriculum within new or existing geoscience courses by creating two written curriculum pieces dealing with the topic accompanied by an explanation of how the curriculum will be used.

Program Evaluation

The School of Ice uses an outside evaluator, Hilarie B. Davis, Ed.D. & Bradford T. Davey, Ed.D. Technology for Learning Consortium, Inc., to conduct evaluations of our workshops. A combination of participant pre- and post-surveys for each workshop is employed. In 2017, all past SOI participants were invited to take part in virtual or phone interviews to identify how the workshop over time has impacted both the educators and their teaching, as well as their students.

Downloads:

Virtual School of Ice 2020 Workshop Evaluation
School of Ice 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Workshop Evaluations
School of Ice Follow-Up Evaluation-measuring long term impacts of the workshop

Watch our 2022 Workshop - Oregon State University recap video!
Scientists, engineers, logistics specialists, and educators that make the School of Ice possible

Meet the School of Ice Experts

TESTIMONIALS

  • “

    If it was not a workshop like this, I would not feel comfortable teaching my advanced Climatology class and offer the labs for the class full of hands-on exercises conveniently available for the students. Every minute of my time was worth this workshop!

    Rose Ozbay
    School of Ice Participant
  • “

    The School of Ice has been a wonderfully rewarding teacher experience. I walked away with an appreciation for all of the work that not only goes into the efforts of research scientists about the evidence of climate change, but how to really teach it using best practices.

    Matt Thomas
    Science Teacher, Alameda International High School
  • “

    I teach earth science and environmental science to non-science majors. Sometimes it is difficult to make them understand the concepts of science. The lab activities presented in the workshop helped to formalize such concepts. From the workshop I gained knowledge about past climate, and proxy data analysis through the wonderful presentations of Prof. Erich Osterberg, Bess Koffman, Meredith Kelly and Bob Howley.

    Paramita Sen
    School of Ice Participant
  • “

    The workshop was successful in terms of education, diversity, collaboration, and knowledge exchangeable. It provided me ways and methods to demonstrate scientific facts over climate change using ice cores and paleodate. This workshop gave opportunities to all participants to learn and pass the knowledge to recent and future generation about climate change.

    Khaldoun Ahmad, Ph.D.
    Environmental Science Instructor Biogeochemistry, Hydro-biogeochemistry, Paleoenvironment Liberal Arts & Sciences Saint Cloud Technical & Community College