URCAD Sneak Peek: On Thin Ice

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 09:25:34 -0400

On Thin Ice is focused on raising awareness of climate change in the arctic, and was one of three Interdisciplinary CoLab research experiences offered to students at UMBC over the summer. Throughout the four-week internship, each student brought their own variety of expertise to the table to create maps of temperature changes in the arctic, compile informational videos about melting ice caps, and write a compelling script for their 12-minute video illustrating the devastating effects of a warming northern hemisphere. The students also had to properly format the video onto a spherical structure which required learning new coding and video editing techniques. It will be presented at Virtual URCAD 2020!

Presenters: Paul Ocone, Lauren Patel, Sangita Ramaswamy

Abstract:

On Thin Ice is a spherical film that explores the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, a vital region for the Earth’s future. An interdisciplinary team of students used a combination of maps, visualizations from NOAA, videos, and images, to produce an immersive presentation that depicts changes in our world in places not accessible to the public. The team researched the problem, created GIS maps, wrote a narrative, and brought all of these elements together into a documentary made for spherical projection systems. The story follows marine animals of the Arctic, from phytoplankton to polar bears. This exploration provides insight on how a changing climate affects Arctic wildlife and their habitats. On Thin Ice also introduces humans as a part of the Arctic ecosystem and as essential players in determining the fate of the Arctic. This short documentary showcases the use of spherical video for science communication, and it incorporates elements of all of the Polar Literacy Initiative’s Polar Literacy Principles. This makes this video a tool for teachers to use in their classrooms during lessons about the Arctic region, and science museums can showcase the film across the US.

Mentors: Donald Snyder, Media and Communication Studies; Nicole Trenholm, Geography & Environmental Systems, Graduate Student; Ben Daniels, Geography & Environmental Systems, Graduate Student

This work was funded, in part, by the Provost’s Office, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Office of Summer, Winter and Special Programs under the UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab program. See the UMBC News story here:

https://magazine.umbc.edu/colab-continues-to-inspire-collaborative-creativity/

Come see On Thin Ice and other undergraduate research and creative work, April 22-29th at URCAD.umbc.edu!