Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Time: 1pm ET/12noon CT/11am MT/10am PT

Description:
Chat with Thorsten Markus, head of NASA Goddard’s Cryospheric Science Lab, about his career as a polar scientist and his research on sea ice. He will answer your questions about working for NASA at the ends of Earth.

Background:
Thorsten Markus is a polar scientist who has been to both to the Arctic as well as the Antarctic. His particular research is sea ice, the frozen ocean, and while performing his research on at times 1ft of sea ice (and 4000 yards of ocean below) he also saw seals, whales, and penguins. The reason for his trips to the poles was to assess how well NASA satellites can measure sea ice properties.

Thorsten grew up in Germany, got his degree in Physics there before coming to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a post-doctoral fellow. His interest in the polar regions was awakened when he interned at a polar research institute and was offered a come along on a research icebreaker to the Antarctic ocean and help taking oceanic measurements. He admits that during high school he was not particularly interested in science and space. His decision to major in physics was mainly driven by the realization that becoming a rockstar may not be a realistic career choice and because math has always been relatively easy for him.

Blog Post on Thorsten
NASA Cryosphere Science Research Portal

To Read the Transcript:
Download the PDF of the chat

Classroom Exercise:
Prior to reading the transcript of the Twitter chat, learn about what Thorsten does using the links above. Have students think about what questions they would ask Thorsten if they were hanging out with him. Read the transcript and see if other people asked the same questions. If not, have students use the internet for research and try to find the answers on NASA websites.

More suggestions how to incorporate the NASA ESW site into your classroom activities are available in the For Educators section.

Other Questions?
Email brandi_bernoskie@strategies.org