INPerSON
The COOLEST Trip
BY niCOLe TaFe
Shaler Area’s Michael Penn will travel
to Antarctica in November as one of
11 teachers in the U.S. selected to
participate in PolarTREC.
BY niCOLe TaFe
S
haler Area Elementary School
teacher Michael Penn is one of
11 teachers in the United States
selected to participate in PolarTREC
(Teachers and Researchers Exploring and
Collaborating), an educational research
experience that partners middle and high
school science teachers with academic
researchers actively involved in polar
science research. Penn is one of fi ve
teachers who will travel to Antarctica this
winter.
PolarTREC is funded by the National
Science Foundation and provides science
teachers (grades 6 to 12) the opportunity
to participate in polar research and work
closely with scientists as a pathway to
improving science education.
For approximately six weeks, Penn
will work as part of a research team from
the University of Wisconsin to install
and maintain remote automatic weather
stations all over the continent of Antarctica.
He and the research team will be based in
both McMurdo Station and South Pole
Station, Antarctica. Th e automatic weather
stations collect information about weather
conditions and measurements that are used
by meteorologists and climate scientists all
over the world.
Penn, 53, has been married to his wife
Greta for almost 30 years. He grew up
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in a very small, rural high school district
called Olentangy just north of Columbus,
Ohio, and went to Ohio State for his
undergraduate studies and California
University of Pennsylvania for graduate
school.
He has been a teacher at Shaler Area
for about 27 years. “I love the sense of
community that Shaler Area has,” says
Penn, who wears several hats as a teacher
of the gift ed in grades 4 to 6 and the STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering and
Math) coordinator.
“I also run our totally cool ‘Dream
Flight’ spaceship simulator!” he adds.
“Since we installed ours, there are now
eight around the world. During my trip,
I’ll be writing missions for the simulator
based on my Antarctic experience. Th at
way more than 10,000 students per year,
both here in Shaler Area and around the
world, will benefi t from this experience.
“I have the coolest job ever! Teaching
the GATE classes is great. Th e kids keep
you interested and excited, and since we
teach to our students’ strengths, we don’t
have a set curriculum. Th at gives us a lot
of latitude to expose the kids to as much
as possible beyond the regular curriculum.
Every student in our building goes through
our spaceship simulator so I get to see
every student in the building.”
icmags.com
Michael Penn
In addition to being a full member of
the research team in Antarctica, Penn’s
responsibilities also include outreach to
students and the public about what he will
be doing, to help foster an interest in math
and science and general knowledge about
the Antarctic.
He will be communicating with
students, schools and the public,
explaining his role in the Automatic
Weather Station project, conveying his
observations, responding to questions
and—most importantly—inspiring
students to become interested and active in
scientifi c issues that aff ect the world. Penn
will chronicle his adventures and work
through a variety of online activities that
will be available to his students at Shaler
Area and around the country.
“I am really looking forward to
interacting with our students and teachers
through journals and video conferencing
and to answer their questions about the