• Members can be individuals or representatives of organizations who volunteer to contribute to advancing the polar education network at an international level.
• Elections are held annually, in the Spring.
• As a Council member you commit to help run PEI and set priorities, attending on-line meetings, making the decisions about how PEI works, encouraging membership to grow. You share our mission of Connecting polar education, research, and the global community, helping shape and deliver the goals and objectives in the PEI Strategic Plan.
• Along with Ex Comm and our Secretariat (host), you help organize activities for polar educators locally and internationally alongside your colleagues around the world, shaping the future of polar education and PEI as we work together to grow and build our international presence.
• You keep our members updated on new happenings in the polar research and/or education field, sharing tools and skills to develop the profession.

Together we serve as representatives of an international polar education community, maintaining our connections with partner organizations, and seeking out new relationships to strengthen our network.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What role will the Council play in PEI?
The Council will be the group of members stepping forward to volunteer their time and talents in a leadership role. These council members will be elected annually and will be responsible for helping to run the organization and set our priorities. These are the folks who help to make the decisions about how PEI works, shape our goals and set objectives to fulfill the overall purpose of our organization. Along with a Secretariat (host), they will help to organize activities for polar educators around the world, shaping the future of PEI as we grow and build our international presence. Together they serve as representatives of an international community, maintain our connections with other organizations, and search out new relationships to strengthen our organization. They also help to keep our members updated on the latest information in polar research and/or education. These are active leaders, representing PEI in many ways, at conferences and meetings, and are recognized by senior leaders in their fields.

2. Who can be a member of the PEI Council?

Any PEI member can become a council member if they are interested in being actively involved in the organization. There are both Organizational and Individual members who follow the same procedure for approval to take a Council position. We encourage partner organizations to forward applicants for the Council.

3. What are the duties & responsibilities of a PEI Council Member?
See the Council Charter here.

4. What is the application notification procedure for the PEI Council?
Applications should be sent to [email protected] after which the Executive Committee will coordinate the voting. After voting, leadership will contact all applicants with the result of the selection. If the applicant is unsuccessful, the communication will suggest other involvement options. If the application is successful, the communication will contain up-to-date documents, communication and news forums, and all contact information necessary for the new Council member. The term of service on the Council begins on 1 June or the date of notification, whichever is later. The new member will be added to the Council email list, introduced to membership using the information provided in the application. Council Member's interests and current projects will be made available on the PEI website.

5. What if I want to serve on Executive Committee?
Any actively participating member of Council may run for a position on the Executive Committee AFTER they have served on Council for a term of at least one year in an active role.

6. What is the timeline for the PEI Council elections?
– 25 April, 2020: Applications due to [email protected]
– 1 June, 2020: Applicants notified of results, term begins with election of Executive Committee, and orientation is scheduled
– End of June, 2020: Council and Executive Committee Virtual Orientation

Afterwards she was employed by the Alfred-Wegener Institute for polar and marine research as executive director for the international permafrost association. In the following she was involved in different Post-Doc projects with studies in the Arctic regions. She now works at the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus – Germany’s highest research station at 2650 m. At the station Inga is also running a laboratory for children with different experiments related to snow, ice and climate change. Besides her studies Inga got a certificate in environmental education and she is frequently performing events for classes or teachers about climate change and environment. Since her PhD (starting in 2008) she was an active APECS member and from 2010 – 2012 member of the APECS Council. Later she was also involved in PEI activities.

I worked as a high school science for 6 years. I have started a Climate Change semester elective. I also helped redesigned the freshman science program to include Environmental Lab Science, a student-centered multidisciplinary class with environmental themes and hands-on labs. Over the summers, I explored the polar regions further, including running a Citizen Science program on board a tourist vessel. This turned into a further passion as I have pursued work in the Polar Tourism Industry and various other contract work. I am currently employed by Antarctic Heritage Trust creating a youth initiative to come to Christchurch and to learn about Antarctica through the lens of the historic Antarctic Explorers. I love Ice Climbing, traveling and eating ice cream. I’m fluent in French and working on my Spanish. I am also a member of The Explorers Club and a co-chair of the Polar Film Festival. I am certified as an EMT and Wilderness EMT. For more information and up to date blogs and Instagram posts check out my website. 

Carried on research in Polar History at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.10 field trips (8 to the Arctic, 2 to the Antarctic). Participated in the Winter Weddell Sea Project 1986, the first wintering scientific programme of a ship in the Antarctic, to write a commissioned book for the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Bremerhaven (Unternehmen Polarstern, 1987, Econ Verlag). Lectured on ships (Northwest Passage and North Pole). 2011-2016 Director of the Zavatti Polar Institute, Fermo, Italy. Lectured at the Genoa Polar Summer School, 2012. Participant at the Arctic Table of the Italian Foreign Ministry.Member of the Society of Woman Geographers, USA, currently on its Board; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and member of the James Caird Society. Many publications on polar history. Interviews given to radio and TV programmes.

Previous to her formal teaching experience she was a teacher/naturalist with Delaware Nature Society. She was an ANDRILL Arise Educator, spending two months in Antarctica with two science teams, investigating climate history through ocean sediment coring and a seismic survey.  Julia is a seasoned presenter at AGU and IPY Oslo and Montreal conferences. She is excited to share her polar experience through school projects, outreach activities, and especially through art that addresses polar science concepts.

My teaching career has focused on infusing environmental literacy throughout my curriculum to create students of all ages who understand and take responsibility for their impacts on the planet and feel empowered to become agents of positive environmental change.  I retired from full-time classroom teaching at the end of the 2013/14 school year, and now try to use some of my new ‘free time’ to focus on what really matters—climate change/polar education and carbon literacy.

Currently in my 17th year of teaching, I am always looking for novel and creative approaches and applications of physics to bring to the classroom. In November, I will be traveling to Antarctica as a PolarTREC teacher working with Carol Costanza and the team at the University of Wisconsin – Madison on Automatic Weather Stations.

She is able to work remotely much of the time from home in Southwest Florida. She retired from 34 years of public school teaching in 2007 and took on the role of ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) Coordinator of Education and Public Outreach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 2007-2013. Besides teaching children, Louise enjoys delivering professional development workshops on science inquiry, climate change, and polar science for teachers.

She has been teaching in primary- and secondary schools for decades, now mainly working as an ambassador for eTwinning, a community for schools in Europe that offers a platform to communicate, collaborate and develop projects. She has initiated many projects with eTwinning, with emphasis on polar science. She has travelled around the world and hiked on glaciers. She attended the PEI-workshop in Coimbra, Portugal in 2013 and has attended all PEI-workshops since then. Her husband, Oddur Sigurðsson, is a glaciologist and they have collaborated in educating school classes in Iceland about the Arctic/Antarctic and maintain an Icelandic website with information related to polar science.

He has also co-chaired/chaired 3 scientific sessions (focusing on geospatial science in polar regions) in major international conferences e.g. SCAR Open Science Conference (OSC) 2012, SCAR OSC-2014, and ISAES-2015. He has conducted 3 major field expeditions to Antarctica and 1 field campaign to Arctic during 2011-2016. He is active in polar education and outreach since 2009.

For his PhD he studied soil erosion on Naxos Island, Greece. The past 19 years, Rainer is teaching geoscience and biology at the Waldorf School Hannover Bothfeld in Germany for students aged 15 to 19 years. His students took part in a lot of projects dealing with polar science. Students were involved in the PEI Workshops in Hannover 2015 and Rovereto 2017. An important recent polar educational project was STEP (Students Exchange for Polar and Earth Science Education), a collaboration with Matteo Cattadori, Italy in 2017. Since IPY 2007 Rainer is coordinator of Polar Educators Germany, German Society for Polar Research (Arbeitskreis Polarlehrer, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarforschung, DGP). In this role, he initiated and leads different activities in Germany such as organizing workshops for educators, preparing newsletters and cooperating with APECS. He participated in ANDRILL 2007, McMurdo, Antarctica. Outcomes of this project were several educational publications and presentations.

He is passionate about science education and communication and enjoys sharing science with people of all ages and from all backgrounds. He is also a former member of the KC Improv Company, and has performed improv around Kansas City and elsewhere.

She has been teaching Natural Sciences in high school for many years, now is a PhD student (Earth Sciences Education) at University of Camerino where she carried out a research on the learning of geological time. In 2014 she took part in an oceanographic cruise in the Arctic as a “Teacher at Sea”, developing an interest in Polar science and Ocean Literacy. After her retirement, Giulia is full time engaged in formal and non-formal science education, teacher training, educational research, dissemination and outreach. She organizes science communication events for schools as President of the Association Scienza under 18 Isontina (www.scienzaunder18isontina.it), writes about science education (Pearson Italy Science Magazine) and collaborates as reviewer with Science in School European journal. She is a member of the Italian National Steering Committee of Science on Stage Europe.

During her career as a Research Fellow, she has gained extensive working experience on the study of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Trace Metals in the Polar Region. This research work experience gives her a command over the topics and global issues related to the environmental subject. She has participated in Indian Antarctic Expedition (2009), Indian Arctic expedition (2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015) and Indian Southern Ocean Expedition (2010). In addition to this, she has undergone several international training programs/workshop at University of Svalbard and University of Tromsø. In addition to this, she has undergone several international training programs/workshop at University of Svalbard and University of Tromsø. Apart from this, she acted as an early career Co-convener/chair of the session “Environmental Contamination in Antarctica” in SCAR OSC, 2016 (Malaysia), and as a volunteer in ASSW, 2017 (Prague).

My interest for participate and being part of Polar Educators international (PEI) its saved on give all my support and contributions by means of become an important part on this worldwide prestigious organization. As Chilean Teacher, placed on Punta Arenas (southernmost regional capital of Chile), representative of Universidad de Magallanes, and annex director of “GAIA Antártica” Program of the University before mentioned I would represent a vivid nexus among organizations at regional, national, and international levels, some of them congruent with your organization.

My first approach to Polar Educators international was at the very beginning with PRO Polar Portuguese program, by means of an exchange of polar professionals who expose a set of talks on different destination, about their polar experiences, expertise, and educational activities performed by them on their devoted time to polar research. After these exchanges, and knowing more people related to polar interests, I could have a general idea about how PEI could improve my task as teacher in here south. Later on at Hannover, Germany, on 2015, I confirmed my ideas about the potential of this organization on my side as a support to PEI and in the opposite as well, from PEI to me.

The interest I have placed on PEI is focus on the exchange of information, researchers, and experiences. From my side as representative of a South American institution (Chile) on this proposal to an organization as yours, would contribute to promote development of knowledge, boost information outspread, provide worldwide placement, and assign guidelines to activities carried out on the South American countries which also requires of polar information, polar education and polar culture.

One of the mayors intending’s of the considered “Antarctic university” (Universidad de Magallanes) in which I currently work, is to boost our International Antarctic Digital repository as data base, files preservation and promotion of the information related with sub Antarctic, Antarctic and polar areas of the world. As well this University is sponsoring a Chilean government mandate related to the creation of a International Antarctic center (CAI) with the purpose of having a research Centre which allow to receive scientist, researchers, educators with interests on Antarctic studies.

He has also published articles on Arctic issues, and he has spoken about the Arctic to various organisations and universities. He has lived and worked in Arctic Canada, and he has travelled in Greenland, Iceland, and Arctic Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Inspired to share his experience of the Arctic with younger generations, in 2016 Anthony created and launched the world’s only secondary-school Model Arctic Council (MAC) programme. He has since offered MAC conferences annually to schools in the UK and Spain, and he has recently launched an undergraduate MAC as well. He combines this innovative educational work with an appointment to Norwich School in the UK, where he teaches courses in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Geography, as well as an appointment to Trent University in Canada as Adjunct Professor of Canadian Studies.

From 2008 to 2011, Anthony was a senior policy official with the Government of Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic territory. He directed a team of analysts advising policymakers on fiscal and economic issues, and he was a core member of Nunavut’s team negotiating with Canada for the devolution of lands and resources. He represented Nunavut on intergovernmental panels dealing with fiscal relations, and on regulatory panels dealing with the mining industry.

Anthony is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. In addition to serving on the Council of Polar Educators International, he is a member of the British Association for Canadian Studies and the International Arctic Social Sciences Association. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto.

Over the last ten years his focus has been towards the environment, climate change and the polar regions. His passion for nature and wildlife and the need to observe/document them has taken him to the Arctic (Greenland, Svalbard, the North Pole, Arctic Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands) and the Antarctic (the peninsula and the Ross Sea region).

He has an Engineering degree in Computer Science and a Masters’ in Business, though he feels that there is a lot to be learnt whether through volunteering, courses or conferences. Some of his recent learning experiences have been a Post Graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (New Zealand), The Changing Arctic (online) by Dr. Terry Callaghan, Ecology of the Polar Bears (Churchill Northern Studies Centre, Canada), Endangered Species Recovery (Durrell Conservation Academy, Jersey, UK), the COP23 (in Bonn) and the PEI Conference (Cambridge, UK).

Having traveled to over 90 countries, and observed pedagogy across regions and cultures, his focus has been on contextual learning (outside) and effective use of innovation and technology (inside the classroom) and he hopes to continue to do so.

London Borough of Camden and several University of Cambridge museums. Her passion for the polar regions grew while developing and managing the education and outreach programmes at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), engaging a wide range of audiences through the Polar Museum and working directly with polar researchers. She participated in IPY2012 Montreal and co-ordinated the PEI 2019 conference in Cambridge, working with colleagues from PEI, SPRI and British Antarctic Survey.  She is a member of her local Makerspace and an advocate for Making and constructionist learning. Her passion for engaging people in research and ideas has driven her to produce the Art and Science Soiree, a vehicle for encouraging collaboration between creative thinkers in both the arts and science.

 Previously I taught middle school science and engineering/robotics for 8 years. I have been actively involved in the International Polar Year. I teach students about the environmental changes that are occurring in the Polar Regions, and how they are affecting us in the Sonoran Desert Region of North America. In 2009, I worked with an international group of scientists, OASIS, performing atmospheric and pollutant research in Barrow, AK as a PolarTREC teacher. I have participated in and presented this experience at several conferences: AGU (2009, 2011), IPY Oslo (2010), NSTA (2011), IPY Montreal (2012). In 2013 I visited Nunavut and Greenland as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. I’m still excited about seeing narwhals on that expedition! I received a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona, and worked in industry for 13 years. I have brought the MATE underwater robotics program to Arizona and provide teacher professional development and a student competition in Tucson.

During that period duties included Laboratories Facilities Manager for all U.S. stations, and Research Dive Officer. Since 1989 teaching middle school science has been my career and passion. My experience has ranged from teacher, to mentor, to science department chair and coordinator, to professional development specialist. I have received honors including recognition from the parents and community, special education acknowledgments, a 2010 Top Ten Teacher of the Year from the California League of Middle Schools, and most recently for 2013, Teacher of the Year for Orange County and a California State Finalist. Beginning with the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 activities, my students and myself took part in PolarTREC expeditions to Antarctica (2008), the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Alaska (2011, 2012), and to Africa/Kilimanjaro (2012). My attendance at both the IPY 2010 Oslo, and the IPY 2012 Montreal Conferences resulted in two poster presentations, attending the PolarTEACHER and PolarEDUCATOR workshops, as well as being present for the initial concept meetings for what is now the PEI.