No one, not even those of us who sat at the center, can or will know the full outreach impact of IPY. If one remembers and trusts public reaction one can deduce that, for a short moment, IPY research and outreach worked together to put a good face on science.

PolarTREC-Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (PolarTREC) has provided the opportunity for over 160 K-12 teachers and informal science educators from the USA to work directly with scientists in the Arctic and the Antarctic. As a Teacher Research Experience (TRE), PolarTREC has engaged teachers with a unique professional development opportunity to increase their teacher content knowledge and learn about the polar regions by partnering with academic polar scientists who are conducting scientific research in the field. Stimulated by the IPY 2007–2008, PolarTREC has sent teachers on field expeditions for over a decade, and during that time has witnessed teachers not only experiencing the polar regions and bringing that experience back into their classrooms but also seeing their students learn more about the polar regions and become more interested in polar science. It is this secondary effect that is truly inspiring. This article profiles the journey to the polar regions of four PolarTREC teachers through their own perspectives and how they translated that experience into educational outreach opportunities.

Reporting on scientific research from Antarctica faces familiar tensions between journalism and science. Among the particular obstacles are the mainstream media’s focus on novelty and the constant need for new angles and new voices. While science journalism has been gaining recognition, many media organisations continue to view it as secondary to more traditional areas of reporting such as politics, business and sports. At a time when we face several environmental crises, that is arguably no longer representative of reality. Coverage of Antarctic issues, including science, could improve if editorial teams were more cross-disciplinary to extend beyond each individual’s boundaries of expertise.

A lasting legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2008 was the promotion of the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), initially an IPY outreach and education activity by the International Permafrost Association (IPA). With the momentum of IPY, PYRN developed into a thriving network that still connects young permafrost scientists, engineers, and researchers from other disciplines. This research note summarises (1) PYRN’s development since 2005 and the IPY’s role, (2) the first 2015 PYRN census and survey results, and (3) PYRN’s future plans to improve international and interdisciplinary exchange between young researchers. The review concludes that PYRN is an established network within the polar research community that has continually developed since 2005. PYRN’s successful activities were largely fostered by IPY. With >200 of the 1200 registered members active and engaged, PYRN is capitalising on the availability of social media tools and rising to meet environmental challenges while maintaining its role as a successful network honouring the legacy of IPY.

Polar Educators International (PEI) is a volunteer-based organization designed to build collaborative relationships between educators and polar researchers. Founded in 2012, PEI was created out of the networks formed during the International Polar Year 2007–2008. This paper explores PEI’s first five years (2012–17) of successes, challenges and opportunities that have led to the creation of an organization with over 1,500 members. Using a ‘level of participation’ framework for communities of practice, we examine the evolution of this educator-researcher network and focus on two key questions: 1) who has PEI reached and served over this time?, and 2) what are barriers to participation? Barriers include sustained engagement with researchers and establishing value within institutional frameworks that generally undervalue activities referred to as ‘education and outreach’ (EOC). EOC activities continue to be perceived as extra-curricular in both educator and researcher communities. Working to deepen collaboration with polar researchers and targeting a greater diversity of PEI’s membership to fill core leadership functions should be future areas of focus for PEI as it looks to continue to shape polar EOC. Advancing and enhancing polar EOC extends well beyond PEI and should be a priority for the broader polar science and education communities.

A collective outreach approach is fundamental for a scientific project. The Green Edge Project studied the impact of climate change on the dynamics of phytoplankton and their role in the Arctic Ocean, including the impact on human populations. We involved scientists and target audiences to ensure that the communications strategy was in agreement with scientists and audience requirements. We developed websites (academic site and blogs and an educational platform). Then, we produced a 52-minute documentary, ‘Arctic Bloom’, and infographics were created to explain experiments on the ice. We also organised a photo exhibition and live videos that enabled primary school-age students to ask questions directly of scientists working on the research icebreaker. Finally, both students and professionals drew their own conception of Arctic science, and our social media sites reached diverse groups of people. The evaluation results showed a large number of education structures (approximately 8000 schools and 104 museums or educational organisations) engaged with our communications outputs and encouraging statistics about website visits (117 021 and 3739 visits on the blog and the YouTube channel, respectively). Selecting different, but intersecting techniques, to promote a better understanding of the science contributed to the success of the communication and outreach outputs of the 3-year project.

Communicating about health risks in the Arctic can be challenging. Numerous factors can hinder or promote effective communication. One of the most important components in effective communication is trust in an information source. This is particularly true when a risk is unfamiliar or complex because the public must rely on expert assessment rather than personal evaluation of the risk. A total of 112 Inuit residents from Nunavik, Canada, were interviewed to better understand the factors that influence trust in individuals or organisations. Results indicate that there are six primary factors that influence trust in an information source. These factors include: (1) whether the information source is a friend or family member; (2) past performance of the individual or organisation; (3) the general disposition of the audience member (that is, he or she believes that most people are trustworthy); (4) the openness or candidness of the source; (5) value similarity (referring to the perceived correspondence in values between the audience member and communicator); and (6) the credibility of the source. The results of this study can help determine who or what agencies should provide messages about health risks in the Arctic. It also provides insight about effective strategies for engendering trust among Arctic residents.

The development of formal discourse about education and outreach within the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings (ATCM), and the influence of major international activities in this field, are described. This study reflects on the ATCM Parties’ approach to implementing the ambition of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty Article 6.1.a, to promote the educational value of Antarctica and its environment, and examines the role of workshops and expert groups within the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes. These early initiatives, which emerged in the 1990s, were a prelude to the development and implementation of a large number of International Polar Year (IPY) education and outreach programmes. The establishment of an Antarctic Treaty System Intersessional Contact Group, and an online forum on education and outreach during the 2015 ATCM in Bulgaria, is a legacy of IPY and is the next step in fostering collaboration to engage people around the world in the importance and relevance of Antarctica to our daily lives.

The changes the polar regions face are too complex to be tackled by single scientific disciplines and in isolation from societal actors. Therefore, the call for polar research projects that engage with stakeholders outside academia increases. The ideal set-up of these projects is envisioned as an inclusive and action-oriented process that brings scientists and stakeholders together to identify pressing issues of societal and scientific relevance and to develop research projects that produce practical outcomes. However, working across disciplines and knowledge systems can be challenging. To better understand stakeholders’ motivation for engaging in polar science projects, to learn what stages of a project they are interested in and what their preferred modes of engagement are, stakeholders were surveyed as part of the EU-funded project EU-PolarNet. The results suggest that while most academic survey participants are eager to participate from problem definition to dissemination of results, most non-academic survey participants preferred interaction at the stages when results were disseminated and used for informed decision-making. The survey results have their limitations, yet they provide a basis for important future approaches to stakeholder engagement in polar research projects. They show that stakeholders prefer to engage in different stages of a research project depending on their specific needs and interests, while also acknowledging that additional support may be required to enable meaningful engagement throughout the research process.

The 4th International Polar Year featured a range of large international research projects and included a focus on Education and Public Outreach (EPO). ANDRILL (the ANtarctic geological DRILLing Project) was a large international (USA, New Zealand, Italy, Germany) multidisciplinary research project investigating the sedimentary record of Cenozoic ice sheet dynamics that brought approximately 160 scientists to McMurdo Station in the 2006 and 2007 field seasons, during which two > 1000 m sediment cores were successfully retrieved from the floor of the Ross Sea. ARISE (ANDRILL Research Immersion for Science Educators), the EPO arm of ANDRILL, deployed an international team of six to eight educators each season to Antarctica and embedded them with science teams. ARISE was unique in the EPO spectrum because it deployed a team of international educators together with an EPO coordinator, offered an on-ice geoscience course for the educators, and supported educator participation at both pre-ice and post-ice meetings. Conservative estimates indicate that at least 314,700 individuals have been reached directly through the wide range of ARISE EPO endeavours.

Educator field research immersion is a small subset of educator professional development (PD) opportunities, with little quantitative or qualitative evaluation of polar immersion experiences having been reported. Here, surveys of ARISE educators and scientists are used to evaluate the efficacy of the ARISE program as PD in the context of research on educator PD. Persistent and recurring themes emerging from the surveys are: (1) the positive and reinforcing impact of deployment as a team; (2) the importance of access to scientists across an extended period of time and venues; (3) the importance of ‘doing science’ as a means of learning; and (4) recognition of the senses of excitement, engagement and inspiration displayed by both educators and scientists − about drilling progress, core interpretation, and outreach plans – and the EPO audience. Key components of the program are shown to be (1) deployment of a multi-educator team; and (2) guidance and support of the EPO coordinator at all phases of the ARISE experience.

In April 2017, Victoria University of Wellington launched ICE101X—Antarctica: From Geology to Human History—on the global edX platform. This Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, attracted 5735 learners from around the world, who engaged with content about Antarctic science, history, geology, and culture, primarily through video lectures filmed in Antarctica. Analysis of feedback from learners in three iterations of the course, offered between 2015 and 2017 and culminating in ICE101X, revealed that learners enjoyed the immersive Antarctic field lectures and learning through a diverse set of disciplinary lenses, had some preconceptions about Antarctica that were challenged by the course content, and completed the course with a new sense of interest in and protection of Antarctica.

Art may be made as a guide to understanding sense of place, and also as a pathway to understanding and valuing scientific ideas. Here we consider this connection in the context of a selected history of artists working in Antarctica, from early explorers to the modern era. This provides a parallel trajectory for the nature, realisation and purpose of the art. We then consider the interaction between art and science and the nature of interdisciplinary work by looking at work produced in a sea ice-based science field camp by an artist collecting data – both scientific and art focused. The artist participated in two field campaigns a year apart, allowing comparison of the evolution of both the artistic practice and the science data collection. Furthermore, the collection of data that served both needs provides a unique point of connection between two fields of endeavour, which are typically considered as separate.

The International Polar Year 2007–2008 stimulated a wide range of education, outreach and communication (EOC) related to polar research, and catalysed enthusiasm and networks that persist ten years on. Using a multi-method approach that incorporates case studies, auto-ethnographic interviews, and survey data, we interrogate the opportunities and limitations of polar EOC activities and propose a new framework for practical, reflexive, engagement design. Our research suggests that EOC activities are under-valued and often designed based on personal instinct rather than strategic planning, but that there is also a lack of accessible tools that support a more strategic design process. We propose three foci for increasing the professionalisation of practitioner approaches to EOC: (1) improved articulation of goals and objectives; (2) acknowledgement of different drivers, voices and power structures; and (3) increased practical training, resources and reporting structures. We respond to this by proposing a framework for planning and design of public engagement that provides an opportunity to become more transparent and explicit about the real goals of an activity and what “success” looks like. This is critical to effectively evaluate, learn from our experiences, share them with peers, and ultimately deliver more thoughtfully designed, effective engagement.