Polar Literacy Project

As science communicators and educators, it can be difficult to evaluate exactly what are the key messages to communicate.

The Polar Literacy Initiative (website: polar-ice.org) has done a great job in highlighting the seven key principles about polar regions that we should aim to communicate. These are the ‘big ideas’ that the general public should know about the Polar Regions.

The seven Polar Literacy Princples defined are:

1. The Arctic and Antarctic Regions are unique because of their location on Earth;
2. Ice is the dominant feature of the Polar Regions;
3. Polar regions play a central role in regulating Earth’s weather and climate;
4. The Polar Regions have productive food webs;
5. The Poles are experiencing the effects of climate change at an accelerating rate;
6. Humans are part of the Polar System;
7. New technologies, sensors and tools are expanding scientists’ abilities to study the land, ice, ocean, atmosphere and living creatures of the Polar Regions.

These seven principles are a great guide for educators when working within the field of science communication. When you’re giving a talk, these principles can form the basis for a structure. Well done to the Polar Literacy Initiative for helping define these ‘big ideas’!

You can download a PDF of the key principles here.