BURNS Arctic Visiting Speaker Tours

Summary:

Dr. Jennifer Burns, University of Alaska-Anchorage Professor of Biology, will travel from Anchorage, Alaska to Memphis, Tennessee, to participate in a week’s worth of education and public outreach activities with Alex Eilers of the Pink Palace Museum. Alex and Dr. Burns have just returned from an Antarctic expedition studying Weddell seals in the Ross Sea through the PolarTREC Program. You can read more about their expedition here: http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/weddell-seals-in-the-ross-sea. Dr. Burns’ visit will serve as an excellent follow up to the initial public and educational outreach component which was initiated by the PolarTREC expedition.

Alex has a very full week of activities set up for Dr. Burns. Many activities will take place at the Pink Palace Museum and be focused around a program which they created together called “Passport to Antarctica – Where Adventure Meets Seal Science”. This program uses actual artifacts, specimens, photographs, videos and a life-sized stuffed Weddell seal to transform the classroom into an Antarctic field experience to provide students with a glimpse of what it is like to be in the field.

Throughout the week, Dr. Burns and Alex will visit many local schools including Campus Elementary, St. John, Jackson Elementary, and Grahamwood Elementary to present “Passport to Antarctica – Where Adventure Meets Seal Science”. They will also visit and present the program to the CLUE students at Coleman Elementary and Keystone Elementary Schools. This program should prove extremely beneficial for the students and allow them the opportunity to interact with an actual Antarctic scientist on a personal level. All of the schools selected to participate in a follow-up visit were chosen based upon the school’s level of participation in the initial program.

There will also be live TV interviews with the “Good Morning Memphis Show”, Memphis’ “Live at 9” morning show and ABC’s Memphis’ WPTY Midday Show.

Finally, Dr. Burns and Alex will even visit a retirement community in Memphis to give a presentation on their program. By the end of this tour, there will be people of all ages in the city of Memphis who know a lot more about Antarctica and Weddell seals!