JOINT SCIENCE EDUCATION PROJECT (JSEP): A MECHANISM TO ENGAGE SCIENTISTS AND STUDENTS TO DESIGN AND CONDUCT OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

The Joint Science Education Project (JSEP) developed out of International Polar Year (IPY) and has become an international collaborative polar science education effort between Greenland, Denmark, and the U.S. to inspire the next generation of STEM innovators in polar science. Students and teachers from the three participating countries attended lectures, visited researcher field-sites (primarily in the Kangerlussuaq, Greenland area, but also Summit Station and NEEM on the Greenland ice sheet), and conducted independent field research projects. In addition to the program participants, 34 scientists, graduate student researchers, science technicians, and other professionals from over 11 universities/research facilities/national agencies actively participated in JSEP by conducting field-site outreach events in Greenland with the JSEP high school student and teacher participants. After the on-site events, student and teacher participants created and implemented written, oral, and online outreach events in their schools and communities. A variety of best practices and lessons learned from JSEP will be discussed, which can be scaled up or applied to other individual or program geoscience outreach efforts.