Jean Pennycook Explained

Jean Pennycook is an American educator and zoologist specializing in Antarctic Adélie penguins.^[1] She is based in Cape Royds, an Antarctic Specially Protected Area which hosts a stable population of Adélie penguins.^{[2] [3]}

Career

Pennycook first came to Antarctica in 1999 as part of a team from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, who were researching Mount Erebus, a volcano on Ross Island.^[4] She publicized scientific research in Antarctica using several science outreach methods, including online journal entries and postcards, video conferences with schoolchildren, and a documentary about the effect of climate change on penguins.^{[4] [5]} Pennycook and her fellow researcher David Ainley run an educational website, Penguin Science, which summarizes the research team's work and aims to attract future scientists to the field.^{[6] [7]} Pennycook has supervised interns in the Polar Internship Program, which aims to enable students of underrepresented racial or social groups to visit Antarctica and become familiarized with Antarctic scientific research.^{[7] [8]}

Pennycook created an outreach project where schoolchildren could send personalized postcards with drawings of penguins sent to her, which would then be returned with an Antarctic postmark.^{[2] [7]} Schools also have the option of designing a class flag to be flown in Antarctica, which can subsequently be viewed through a live penguin webcam on the research team's website.^{[6] [9]}

Publications

• Pennycook . Jean . October 2006 . Penguins Marching Into Your Classroom . Science and Children . 44 . 2 . 65 .
• Kim . S. . Pennycook . J. . Eastman . J. . 2011 . Short Note: Antarctic toothfish heads found along tide cracks of the McMurdo Ice Shelf . Antarctic Science . 23 . 5 . 469–470 . 10.1017/S095410201100040X.
• Ainley . D.G. . Lindke . K. . Ballard . G. . Pennycook . J. . 3 . 2017 . Spatio-temporal occurrence patterns of cetaceans near Ross Island, Antarctica, 2002–2015: implications for food web dynamics . Polar Biol . 40 . 9. 1761–1775 . 10.1007/s00300-017-2100-9.
• Morandini . V. . Dugger . K.M. . Ballard . G. . Elrod . M. . Schmidt . A. . Ruoppolo . V. . Lescroël . A. . Jongsomjit . D. . Massaro . M. . Pennycook . J. . Kooyman . G.L. . 10 . 2019 . Identification of a Novel Adélie Penguin Circovirus at Cape Crozier (Ross Island, Antarctica) . Viruses . 11 . 12 . 1088 . 10.3390/v11121088. 31766719 . 6950389 . free .
• LaRue . MA . Salas . L . Nur . N . Ainley . DG . Pennycook . J . 4 . 2019 . Physical and ecological factors explain the distribution of Ross Sea Weddell seals during the breeding season . Mar Ecol Prog Ser . 612 . 193–208 . 10.3354/meps12877.
• LaRue . M.A. . Ainley . D.G. . Pennycook . J. . Stamatiou . K. . Salas . L. . Nur . N. . Stammerjohn . S. . Barrington . L. . 2020 . Engaging 'the crowd' in remote sensing to learn about habitat affinity of the Weddell seal in Antarctica . Remote Sens Ecol Conserv . 6 . 1 . 70–78 . 10.1002/rse2.124. free .
• Salas . Leo A. . LaRue . Michelle . Nur . Nadav . Ainley . David G. . Stammerjohn . Sharon E. . Pennycook . Jean . Rotella . Jay . Paterson . John Terrill . Siniff . Don . Stamatiou . Kostas . Dozier . Melissa . Saints . Jon . Barrington . Luke . 2020 . Reducing error and increasing reliability of wildlife counts from citizen science surveys: counting Weddell Seals in the Ross Sea from satellite images . bioRxiv . 10.1101/2020.11.18.388157.
• LaRue . Michelle . Pennycook . Jean . 1 . 2021 . Insights from the first global population estimate of Weddell seals in Antarctica . Sci. Adv. . 7 . 39 . eabh3674. 10.1126/sciadv.abh3674. 34559555 . 8462891 .

External links

• Penguin Science, a penguin educational outreach project
• Penguin webcam, maintained by Pennycook
• Postcards from the Field: Antarctica
• Women Working in Antarctica video profile

Notes and References

1. Web site: Jean Pennycook . Women Working in Antarctica . https://web.archive.org/web/20211126231210/http://womeninantarctica.com/portraits/jean.html . 26 November 2021 . live.
2. News: Sending a postcard from somewhere you've never been . Shah . Dhruti . 3 December 2016 . BBC . https://web.archive.org/web/20210610103511/https://www.bbc.com/news/business-37612574 . 10 June 2021 . live.
3. Stonehouse . B. . December 1967 . Penguins in High Latitudes . Tuatara . 15 . 3 . 129–132.
4. Web site: Jean Pennycook . Windows to the Universe . 28 November 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230728102005/https://www.windows2universe.org/?page=/bio/jean_pennycook.html . 28 July 2023 . live.
5. News: Willowbrook Students Visit Antarctica Via Skype . Preis . Beth . 28 January 2013 . Patch . https://web.archive.org/web/20230728103344/https://patch.com/illinois/northbrook/willowbrook-students-visit-antarctica-via-skype . 28 July 2023 . live.
6. News: Is Anything More Adorable Than a Penguin? . Martin . Jynne Dilling . 12 December 2013 . Slate . https://web.archive.org/web/20220627045008/https://slate.com/technology/2013/12/penguins-in-antarctica-is-fishing-in-the-ross-sea-harming-adelies-photos.html . 27 June 2022 . live.
7. Web site: Adélie Penguins Cope With Climate Change . National Science Foundation . 6 February 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230606134428/https://new.nsf.gov/news/adelie-penguins-cope-climate-change . 6 June 2023 . live.
8. News: Polar interns get a taste of the Ice . Barnett . Brien . 18 January 2004 . . 7 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230615061022/https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/pastIssues/2003-2004/2004_01_18.pdf . 15 June 2023 . live.
9. News: Sacred Heart School's two Kindergarten classes' flags flown in Antarctica . 19 March 2019 . InMenlo . https://web.archive.org/web/20190403003634/https://inmenlo.com/2019/03/19/sacred-heart-schools-two-kindergarten-classes-flags-flown-in-antarctica/ . 3 April 2019 . live.