2026 Palmer Station VTC Educator Information

2026 Palmer Station VTC Educator Information

Are your classrooms ready to go to Antarctica?

This winter, which is summer in Antarctica, classroom from across the county will again join the Palmer LTER research team as part of our 2026 PAL Video Teleconference (VTCs) series. Educators participating in the year’s program can find information and resources below to help them join the research project with their students.

What is a VTC? Basically, it’s an old-fashioned term for a live Zoom call. We’ve been doing these for a while 🙂

Core Curriculum: Data to the Rescue: Penguins Need Our Help!

With the help of penguin scientist Dr. Megan Cimino, youth use data to determine what is happening to the 3 species of penguin at Palmer Station.

In order to prepare students for the live calls, educators are asked to conduct several activities from the Data to the Rescue curriculum.

• Data to Rescue Online Materials – This is the online version of the kit you were sent.
  • You can find downloadable pdfs on this page for the instructor guide, student guide and postcards.
  • The student guide and postcards are also available in Spanish.
  • Note, we actually have two versions of the curricula. The Club Version is the one we recommend using, and is the version you received in the mail. We also have a more self-directed Individual version.
• Video Resources
  • Penguins of Palmer – The introductory video from the curriculum. This is a good place to start. (The video is included in Postcard #4.)
  • Seabird Research at Palmer Station (download link) – A 7-minute introductory talk by Dr. Megan Cimino
  • Asking Questions Like a Polar Scientist – Here is an example Question Formulation Technique template you can copy or adapt for session 6.
  • Drone flyover of Palmer Station (download link) – Recorded by Ross Nichols
  • Google Earth zoom in on Palmer Station
• If you don’t want to use the CODAP to explore the Penguin Data, you can this simplified Data Story version instead.
• Participating educators attended a professional development webinar on Dec 11, 2025. You can download the webinar slides for reference.

Additional Activities

Looking for more activities to share with your students? We encourage you to check these related projects…

• Data dispatches from SWARM – Five additional data activities for high school educators
• Polar Data Stories – More interactive stories featuring polar data and scientists
• When Whale I See You Again – A Data Nugget activity investigating the sex ratio of Humpback whales Choose Level A if you just want students to explore a pre-drawn graph. Choose Level C if you would like students to create their own graph of the data. Check out the educator guide for more.
• ID Antarctic Challenges – A series of challenges where participants use a dichotomous key to identify some of the mysterious creatures that live around Palmer Station
  • You can also try the What is it? Antarctica activity: Presentation, Worksheet, Field Guide

Additional Resources

Here are a few additional resources, some of which were mentioned on the webinar. In general, these are for those educators or students interested in learning more about polar science at Palmer Station, and not required for participating in the VTCs.

• Palmer Station Antarctica LTER – The main research project website and blog
• Polar Literacy Principles – Each principle includes a fun overview video, and one or more video profiles of polar scientists.
• LTER VTC archive – Check out our past webinars to see how they work.
• Making Data Engaging from Click 2 Computer Science – A great set of videos (that Rutgers helped produce!) showing how to engage students with data.
• Exploring Palmer LTER student worksheet – A simple worksheet to get students thinking about Antarctica.

Call Logistics

VTCs will take place at 1:00 pm EST / 10:00 am PST on their scheduled day. 

You will receive the Zoom link prior to your call. Please log on a minimum of 10 minutes before the call to fix any potential technical issues. We will be on the call 30 minutes in advance to help. 

Call Questions

All questions are due a minimum of 48-hours prior to your scheduled call. Please encourage your youth to ask questions about the science Palmer Station that researchers are engaged in, in addition to station life. 

Here is a list of sample questions from previous years. (Note, the topics may be different.)

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2026 VTC Schedule and Participating Teams 

We are excited to include 40 schools and 4-H clubs. We hope to post the list of participating schools soon.

Questions

If you have any questions, please reach out to Mitaali Taskar (mitaali.taskar@marine.rutgers.edu) or Janice McDonnell (mcdonnel@marine.rutgers.edu).