Polar Science Skills Workshop (PSSW)

The Workshop

The Polar Science Skills Workshop (PPSW) is a free online course designed to enhance polar science and related skills (i.e., Python coding). The course is designed for undergraduate students and recent graduates in the geoscience or STEM disciplines. The workshop is open to anyone worldwide wishing to increase their polar science knowledge but should recognize that this is an introductory workshop.

Goals

The goals for the workshop are to increase participants’:

  • Knowledge, skills, and interest in polar science, environmental change, and paleoclimate research;

  • Self-efficacy in using polar science data;

  • Competitiveness in the application process for research experiences (ex: REUs), graduate school or professional jobs;

  • Knowledge, skills, and efficacy in using Python (via Google Colab) to interact with and and analyze data

End of Workshop Certificate

This is a free, not-for-credit workshop. At the end of the workshop, participants will receive a report certificate via email indicating the content of each module, the number of assignments for each module, and your average score on each module.

Learning Modules

The time commitment is approximately 60 hours over 10 weeks. Each learning module is two weeks long with 3-4 Python based tutorial assignments each. A weekly time commitment of ~5-6 hours per week.

Tentative Summer 2027 Dates

  • Module 1: Intro to Earth System Science & Paleoclimate (June 7 - 20)

  • Module 2: The Cryosphere (June 21 - July 4)

  • Module 3: Observing the Cryosphere - Dynamics & Geophysics (July 5 - 18)

  • Module 4: Ice Cores (July 19 - August 1)

  • Module 5: Past & Future of Ice on Earth (August 2 - 15)

Workshop Structure

The workshop will be housed in the Canvas learning system through Oregon State University (OSU). You do not need to be a student at OSU to participate. Communication with instructors and teaching assistants will be conducted via email and Slack. Weekly seminars focused on module content and related polar science topics will be held via Zoom.

Workshop Instructor(s)

To be announced in Spring 2027

Sign up to receive an email when registration opens.

Questions?

Email COLDEX Director for Broadening Participation:
Dr. Mindy Nicewonger or COLDEX Director for Education: Dr. Keely Corder