Discovering Antarctica refreshed

I received my RGS bulletin a few days ago with news of events leading up to Christmas.

It explained the work that has been going on to refresh one of the sites which I have used every year since it appeared, and also contributed a small section to when it first launched.

Discovering Antarctica has had some new sections added and others refreshed, with the help of Polar scientists.

It remains a real go-to site for us at King's Ely and we will be teaching our Pole to Pole unit again later in the year...

Take the Wilderness Challenge

Year 8, don't forget to let the penguin quizmaster introduce you to Antarctica. Take the Wilderness Challenge.

What (not) to Wear....

My son is unwell, so I've needed some work for students to complete which is challenging and creative, but doesn't need my specific input.

I headed to TeachIt Geography and found a useful document which explored the equipment that scientists (and other visitors) need to take when travelling to Antarctica to cope with the climate of the Polar regions.
This is paired with an activity (pictured above) from the newly revamped Discovering Antarctica website.

There is also the Shackleton Solo website, which features the equipment carried by the late Henry Worsley on his attempt to cross Antarctica which unfortunately ended in his tragic death. Henry's website illustrates the equipment that he took with him, such as these Paramo salopettes.

Who owns the Arctic ?

Year 8 students will be familiar (I hope) with the map showing the countries that claim sectors of the Antarctic. Remember that these are just that: claims - they aren't proof of 'ownership'. There are various maps of the sectors of Antarctica, but we used this one from the Discovering Antarctica website which we have made major use of this term (and which is really useful for revision too... hint....)

Image copyright: Royal Geographical Society - from Discovering Antarctica website

Thanks to Bob Lang for sending a link to a New York times map which provided some detail on the claims currently being made at the opposite end of the planet. Although many of the countries that circle the Pole are countries in their own right, there is a range of conflicting claims on the ocean that lies at the North Pole. There are many resources which are of tremendous value, and these claims are significant.
The New York Times article is here....

Image copyright: New York Times

Year 8 revision suggestions....

The Year 8 exams will take place after Christmas.

We will have a final 'Geog your memory' (with thanks to Claire Power's students for that name) session next week, and also have some time in the first week back.
There is no prep being set for the time being of course, other than the obvious preparations and revision at some time over your holiday period.

The exams are based on our Pole to Pole unit, and will ask you some questions testing your factual recall, but also regarding your thoughts on the way that the Poles are changing and some of the ways they connect with our daily lives. There will also be questions testing your ability to use data, maps, graphs etc which have been provided by us.

1. Check out the Discovering Antarctica and Discovering the Arctic websites, and explore the interactive elements to revisit ideas such as: why the Poles are so cold, how people are using Polar regions (including tourism, scientific resources and resource extraction) and

2. You'll find no shortage of relevant YouTube clips to watch - or VIMEO tends to have better quality offerings, and also without some of the problems with YouTube comments / ads etc.

For example:


Antarctica from Darek Sepiolo on Vimeo.
This is a short clip inspired by Hans Zimmer's music from "The Thin Red Line". My tribute to great composer and beauty of nature.
3. Climate data
Here's the data for several bases...

Amundsen-Scott (South Pole)
(32 years of data, source: www.antarcticconnection.com )
Month	Mean Temp.	Precipitation	Mean Windspeed
	(degC)	(mm)	(mph)
Jan	-26	0	1.1
Feb	-38	0	0.9
Mar	-52	0	1.4
Apr	-56	0	4.6
May	-56	2	5.4
Jun	-57	0	4.6
Jul	-58	0	5
Aug	-58	0	5
Sep	-58	2	5.7
Oct	-50	0	1.7
Nov	-37	0	1.3
Dec	-26	0	1.1

Choose one and draw a climate graph - line graph for temperatures - remember that zero will not be at the bottom, but part of the way up the graph's axis, and bar graph for precipitation, of which there is very little...

Byrd
(16 years of data, source: www.antarcticconnection.com)
Month	Mean Temp.	Precipitation	Mean Windspeed
	(degC)	(mm)	(mph)
Jan	-14		16
Feb	-18		18
Mar	-26		20
Apr	-28		23
May	-31		24
Jun	-33		23
Jul	-34		21
Aug	-35		24
Sep	-35		23
Oct	-29		23
Nov	-20		20
Dec	-15		16

Or try another base: the data for a range of them can be downloaded from HERE

More to come over Christmas....

Discovering the Poles, and some interesting questions...

Some of the Year 8 groups are underway with the Pole to Pole unit. All Year 8 will be onto this next week.
This makes use of the Discovering Antarctica website.
This website is full of interactive elements and really goes into detail on the impact of human use of the Poles.
I contributed some of the teaching materials to the website, and a few other bits when it was first created.

If you are in Year 8, I recommend that you take a look at this website and work through some of the activities as directed for prep. There are plenty of fun games and interactive activities to work with, and we will also be using a tool called TRIPTICO to make our own versions, which will be even better than the ones on the website of course.
There's also a partner site which I worked on called Discovering the Arctic.
I wrote the SWIPA permafrost materials for that website.

See the posters in the Geography rooms for more on these sites...

We'll also be looking at some of the questions that you have about the Poles and trying to answer them...
Here's an interesting question that a student asked teacher Liz Saville, which she shared on Twitter.

The best question posed by my KS3 students today whilst learning about Antarctica ? " what does 'cold' smell like"? That got us thinking....
— liz saville (@liz_saville) September 6, 2013

Can we think of other questions about the Polar regions ? 

Antarctic Futures...

While travelling back from the 30 degree heat of London yesterday, I tried to cool down by reading about the frozen continent of Antarctica
This is an excellent book which provides a range of interesting perspectives on the people who work in the continent, as well as changes that are taking place.
There's plenty of science, along with an excellent historical timeline of the continent, and a glossary of key terms including some of the slang terms used by the scientists who over-winter at the South Pole base.
I shall also be making use of some of the activities from the rather wonderful RGS-IBG Discovering Antarctica site. I wrote the curriculum links section for this website some time ago, when still teaching.

One possible focus for student enquiries and writing could be the current discussions which are taking place to determine whether the oceans around Antarctica will be declared as marine sanctuaries. This would connect with many of the relevant themes, and also explore some of the ideas relating to seas and oceans which are now mentioned in the new draft curriculum document.

For those who may not be aware, there's a sister-site called Discovering the Arctic which is also available. There are less interactive elements here perhaps, but there's plenty of useful material. I had a hand in this too: writing the section on SWIPA - a report on the changing nature of permafrost and ice in the Arctic regions. There are some new geographies emerging here, and we shall try to offer opportunities to explore those in more detail.
When the temperature is soaring outside it's nice to read about something as cold as ice...