APECS and AWI have organized a 6-week long training on the Russian icebreaking research vessel Akademik Fedorov in the Central Arctic with main support from ARICE and IASC, as well as from CliC and YOPP.
The MOSAiC School was a unique opportunity for 20 early career researchers during the first leg of the MOSAiC Expedition. They were selected from about 250 applications from 35 countries with the help of 30 reviewers through a rigorous evaluation process. Coming from a wide background of environmental research backgrounds in physics, physical geography, glaciology, oceanography, geochemistry, geology, climate sciences, applied mathematics, biology, hydrology, remote sensing and modelling, and being early in their career, for most of them it was the first experience in the Arctic or on an icebreaking research vessel.
The aim of the MOSAiC School was to
- Train and educate the next generation of Arctic system science experts
- Provide support to the MOSAiC teams and
- Communicate the newly gained knowledge experience through MOSAiC Ambassadors’ projects
In practical, the MOSAiC School was organized in several parts including theoretical science, science communication input, and practical experience, which included the set up of the MOSAiC distributed network (DN).
Besides a wide variety of lectures, exercises, panel discussions and workshops, the MOSAiC School participants were involved in Ice Watch, polar bear watch for guaranteeing the safety of all people on the ice, creating weather forecasts for the next day, helping with ice drift modelling, designing the poster for all participants onboard, help answering the #AskMOSAiC questions, and reporting of daily activities of the MOSAiC School.
As a result of the MOSAiC School, the participants will act as MOSAiC Ambassadors and pass their experience and therefore the legacy of MOSAiC to the public and young generation, e.g. by school visits, public talks, organizing teachers workshops, developing scout patches, photo exhibitions, creating video & audio material, blogs, cartoons and other outreach products. More information on the MOSAiC Ambassadors‘ projects can be found on the APECS website (to be updated) and on related distribution channels, such as the APECS vimeo channel for the MOSAiC Ambassadors’ projects.
Highlights:
- Teaching about Arctic System Science while being actually in the Arctic environment proved to support sustainable learning and was incredible inspiring for young scientific minds.
- Learning from practitioners, engineers and scientists and getting involved into real field science is a rewarding and a life-time experience.
- A sophisticated review system of applications, well-organized lecture plan with teambuilding activities and awareness for complex and challenging situations onboard, helped to keep the group healthy and may have supported this incredible positive group dynamic we had.
- It seems like the Ambassadors’ approach is a great chance to increase the output and keep the legacy of a project or program alive for a long time.
More information on IASC-supported Cross-Cutting Activities is available here.