Live Webcasts & Dispatches Online: May 20, 2008
http://icestories.exploratorium.edu

spent a week at the Exploratorium in San Francisco for a rigorous workshop on how to document and communicate their cutting-edge polar research for the public. When they return to the field this spring, the Arctic scientists will act as correspondents for the Exploratorium’s Ice Stories website and live webcasts, beginning May 20, 2008. Although these researchers have no scripts, no professional film crews, and have never produced webcasts, they have learned to hold up a lens for the world to see their field studies, Arctic life, and even fellow company. The Exploratorium’s media team, along with visiting experts from National Public Radio, PBS’s NOVA and a science blogger, formerly with US News and the San Francisco Chronicle, trained the scientists in the fundamentals of new media production. Among the elements addressed were filming, video editing, narrative storytelling, blogging, and ethics in interviewing. The museum equipped them with high definition cameras, audio equipment and editing software — all geared up and ready for the most extreme weather conditions. Dispatches from the newly minted correspondents will tap into the groundbreaking science and awesome beauty that so many will never know in person.

To see these completely original and rare Ice Stories go to www.exploratorium.edu/poles . You will see a glaciologist investigating how polar snow turns to ice, a paleontologist sampling algae lipids from the bottoms of Greenland lakes, and two archaeologists continuing their efforts to save an ancient Inupiat burial ground in Barrow, Alaska, before it erodes and is lost to the Atlantic Ocean. These researchers are driven to the most remote areas of the planet by their passion for science and exploration. From the far reaches of an Alaskan tundra fire to the icebreaker ships that conduct research around the poles, they will share their stories.
In addition to video dispatches, the Arctic correspondents will write back regularly through online Field Reports. Curious about what you’re watching or about the research being conducted? Feel free to comment on their dispatches, and they will respond to viewer inquiries. Log on to www.exploratorium.edu/poles this Arctic summer and take part in celebrating the International Polar Year.