Ninth-grade students from Passaic Valley High School (PVHS) recently had the opportunity to participate in a videoconference and pose questions about global warming to Montclair State professors Sandra Passchier, associate professor of earth and environmental studies and Jacalyn Willis, director of Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics (PRISM), and New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr.

Linking Montclair State with PVHS in Little Falls, Washington, D.C. and the rainforest of Panama, the event provided a rare opportunity for the students to discuss the issue of global warming with their congressional representative and scientists directly involved in research in the field. The videoconference was part of the U.S.-wide educational program, “Focus the Nation” which is aimed at promoting discussion on the topic of global warming among educational, governmental and business organizations.

The students, all members of PVHS’s freshman Biology 1 class, asked general questions such as “Why did Antarctica get so cold?” and “Is there any way of preventing the ice from melting?” and as well as questions specific to Passchier’s work with the Antarctic Drilling Program like “What information do you find by drilling in Antarctica?” Later in the videoconference, Willis joined in the discussion from her research station in the rainforest of Panama.

Read The Bergen Record article on the videoconference here.

View the WMBC TV news report of the event here.

View the Webstream of the entire videoconference here.
(Scroll to find “Passaic Valley Focus the Nation”)