Woods Hole Research Center Furthering Collaborations With Schools and Communities

Sept. 12, 2006

Max Holmes (center) with school children in Zhigansk.

Max Holmes works with Yupik Eskimo students in Pilot Station,
Alaska, as part of the Student-Partners Project.

Bringing information about global climate change together with education to students around the world is the aim of a developing collaboration at the Woods Hole Research Center. Associate Scientist R. Max Holmes, who has already begun an Arctic Student-Partners Project, is expanding that initiative to become a collaborator with The Global Challenge, a new endeavor working to engage high school students in developing solutions to combat global warming.

According to Holmes, “It is easy to be overwhelmed by the complexity and magnitude of the global warming crisis. Instead of being paralyzed by the magnitude of the problem, we need to focus our energies on solving it.”

Holmes initially connected with Craig Deluca, the founder of The Global Challenge, through Amy Clapp, a Vermont teacher with whom Holmes has worked in the Arctic for the last several years. Deluca learned about Clapp’s travels in the Arctic, and she referred him to Holmes.

Holmes says, “As a scientist working in the Arctic on issues related to global climate change, most of my research is directed at better understanding the details of climate change impacts in the Arctic – that is, the details of the problem. Instead of just focusing on the problem, I’m very excited to be collaborating with The Global Challenge to foster solutions to the problem.”

The Global Challenge (www.globalchallengeaward.org) will team pairs of high school students in the United States with students in China, India, or Russia. Together, the groups will collaborate over the course of a school year to develop a solution to combat some aspect of global warming. An additional goal of the program is to inspire students to pursue math, science and engineering careers, fields where the United States needs to excel in order to remain a leader in the globalized economy. The Global Challenge, through a partnership with the College of Engineering and
Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont, recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation for a three-year term of support.

The Student-Partners Project, also funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, unites students, teachers, and scientists around the world to advance scientific understanding of the role of major arctic rivers in the changing arctic and global systems. By partnering with K-12 grade students and teachers living near the mouths of the largest arctic rivers in Russia, Canada, and Alaska, researchers will obtain the high frequency river water samples that are needed to understand seasonal dynamics and annual biogeochemical fluxes in the river systems. Through involvement in sampling, sample analysis, and data interpretation, students and teachers at the study sites will come to appreciate the pivotal role “their” rivers play in the Arctic System.

According to Holmes, “Because we have shared interests in climate change and in education, working with The Global Challenge is a natural extension for what we’re accomplishing with the Student-Partners Project. I’m looking forward to working with The Global Challenge team and associated educators and students to help make this unique effort more than just an academic exercise and instead help the participants see that their work can influence what’s happening in the world around them.”

Holmes has brought the idea forward informally to the Falmouth Public Schools, and he expects that further discussions will lead to an official partnership.

The Woods Hole Research Center is dedicated to science, education, and public policy for a habitable Earth, seeking to conserve and sustain forests, soils, water, and energy by demonstrating their value to human health and economic prosperity. The Center sponsors initiatives in the Amazon, the Arctic, Africa, Russia, and North America, including the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and Cape Cod. Center programs focus on the carbon cycle, forest function, landcover/land use, water cycles and chemicals in the environment, as well as policy.