PENGUIN modules give High School students the opportunity to use powerful computational tools to work with real-world data in the classroom, while learning about polar regions and climate change. The modules are at the intersection with disciplinary skills in fields from Geosciences, to Economics, to Algebra.
PENGUIN is an NSF-funded project to bring polar research and data into undergraduate classrooms. For PENGUIN High, the modules have been modified for the High School level to provide an easy entry into powerful computational tools.
Choose from Excel, Python, or R. Modules in Python and R are completed on an online platform, with no downloading or prior coding experience required.
Students learn how melting polar ice is leading to sea level rise and use cost-benefit analysis to determine how high to build a wall in a coastal city to hold back the rising sea. (Excel)
Students learn about Adelie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap penguins and apply concepts in Algebra by fitting straight lines to data on penguin breeding and population change. (Excel or Python)
PENGUIN modules were created with funding from the National Science Foundation and are licensed under the Creative Commons Copyright. You may freely use and share with attribution to the PENGUIN project as follows:
Rowe, P.M. et al, Integrating polar research into undergraduate curricula using computational guided inquiry, JGE, 2020. (link)
Penguin image by Stan Shebs, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license Pygoscelis Papua.
