The Antarctic Team Answers your Questions
Current Questions and Answers
To see the current list of questions and answers, click here.
Browsing Answers to Questions Already Asked
An archive of question/answer pairs of previously asked questions
will be maintained and categorized for easy reference throughout the duration
of the project. Look here for the link to come soon!
Asking The Antarctic Team Your Questions
The opportunity to send email questions to the men and women of
the Antarctic Team is available now until March 31, 1997.
We are grateful to the Antarctica folks for generously volunteering
their time to support this service.
The sections below will describe some guidelines and procedures for
the process.
K-12 students and teachers can email questions to researchers, scientists,
and support staff. This interaction will be supported by a "Smart Filter"
which protects the professional from Internet overload by acting as a
buffer. The actual email addresses of these experts will remain unlisted.
Also, repetitive questions will be answered from an accumulating database
of replies; thus the valued interaction with the experts will be saved
for original questions. (More information about how you can directly search
this database will follow later).
Tips For Asking Good Questions
Each and every expert is excited about connecting with classrooms.
But it is important to remember that the time and energy of these researchers
and scientists are extremely valuable. If possible, please review the materials
available online to gain an overall understanding of the basics.It
would be best to ask questions that are not easily answered elsewhere.
For example, "What is an Adelie penguin?" would not be an appropriate question.
We recognize that this creates a gray area about whether or not a question
is appropriate. Simply use your best judgment. Since the main idea is
to excite students about the wonders of science and research, please err
on the side of having the students participate. If you are not sure whether
or not to send a question, send it.
Some teachers have used a group dynamic to refine the questions that
they email to experts. For example, after first studying LFA 2 material,
students divide into groups and create a few questions per group. All
of the questions are then shared, and students are given an opportunity
to find answers to their classmates' questions. Those that remain unanswered
are sent to the LFA 2 team.
Ideally, the act of sending questions will further engage the student
in their learning. It may help to think back to an early stage of development
when the 3-year-old learns that repeating the word "why" can get parents
to do most of the work in a conversation The wise parent will try to get
child involvement by asking "Why do you want to know?" The same is true
in the classroom. Teachers might want to help students to learn to ask
good questions. Here are three questions the students might ask themselves
as they submit their questions:
What do I want to know?
Is this information to be found in a resource I could easily check (such
as a school encyclopedia)?
Why do I want to know it? (What will I do with the information? or How
will I use what I learn?)
The last question is the most interesting. Student reflection on why they
want to know something is a very valuable learning experience.
Logistics Of Sending In Questions (Address And Format)
Questions will be accepted from now through the duration of the
project, March 31, 1997. To submit a question, mail it to the following
email address:
We will acknowledge and answer all questions as quickly as possible.
Our goal is to provide a basic acknowledgment immediately. In most cases
we should be able to provide an answer within one week to ten days.
In the subject field, please put the letters "QA:" before a descriptive
subject. Also, provide a sentence of background information to help the
experts understand the grade level of your students. The following example
should illustrate this idea.
TO: question-lfa@quest.arc.nasa.gov
FROM: your email address
SUBJECT: QA: Krill feeding on algae
Hello,
I am an 8th grader from West Salem, Wisconsin.. In the "Oceans, Life
and Ice" broadcast we learned about Robin Ross and her krill studies.
What factors influence the algae population in and around Antarctica?
Thanks, Laura Johnson
One Question Per Message
If you or your class have several questions which are unrelated,
we ask that you please send each unrelated question in a separate email
message rather than as one message with many different questions. While
this may be inconvenient, it is important because it will help us to keep
track of the questions and ensure that no question remains unanswered. Messages
that do not follow this request will be unnecessarily delayed as we go through
the extra step of splitting up the messages ourselves.
Twenty Question Limit
Any individual teacher will be limited to submitting a total of
twenty (20) questions every three months. Hopefully this will encourage
more classroom discussion about what students want to know and will lead
to research done before asking questions.
You can click here
to review archived questions and answers from Live from Antarctica 1.
Take a look at what was asked in the past to help you formulate questions
for this round of Researcher Q & A!
Last Update: 2/7/97
Comments on the LFA Web site: Webspinner.
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Reserved.
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