Education. Art. Science.
Polar STEAM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math, integrates and enhances two long-standing National Science Foundation (NSF) programs: the Polar Educators program and the Antarctic Artists and Writers program and facilitates virtual and deployment collaborations with scientists conducting research in the polar regions. Joining the programs creates new opportunities to connect the perspectives and work of creatives, educators, and researchers in some of the most interesting, vulnerable, and critical ecosystems on the planet. Expanding participation in the program to include faculty from community colleges and Minority Serving Institutions and virtual educator participants will allow both programs to reach new audiences and better engage the next generation of researchers and science learners.
Our Approach
Polar STEAM is an NSF funded project run by an interdisciplinary team at Oregon State University. Participants are supported in their creative, scientific, and educational practices as they develop and share creative works and educational resources that engage learners of all ages in understanding the critical global importance of polar environments and the people who call these regions home. Polar STEAM is an inclusive program that views our differences with curiosity and invests in diversity.
Virtual and Field Experiences
Polar STEAM makes the isolated, extreme polar regions and the science conducted in those regions accessible to educators, artists, and writers so that they can, in turn, share the polar regions with the broader public through their teaching, art, and written word. Virtual and deployment options are available, see the FAQ page for more information.
Inclusive and Diverse
Integrating the programs goes hand-in-hand with enhancing outreach and accessibility for educators and artists participants by forging connections with communities not historically served by art-science and educator-science programs. Polar STEAM also aims to expand the roster of collaborating researchers to elevate new voices historically underrepresented in polar sciences within the integrated approach to science communication in the polar regions made possible when creatives, educators, and researchers work together.
Public Engagement
Polar STEAM is not just a national program but a journey for all of us to get closer to what is so physically distant, to understand the Polar regions and its people as community, and to commit to share what we learn with the world so others too can let their curiosity thrive.
As part of its commitment to Polar STEAM, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts will curate a major exhibition – as well as related performances – related to polar regions in the 2026-27 season. Sign up for updates about this and other public engagement events.
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Made possible with funding by the National Science Foundation Award #2221990. The information contained here is those of the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.