Meeting with Jim Knight, Sports Minister
On Wednesday 24 October at the House of Commons, Schools Minister Jim Knight MP, will meet with the four science and geography teachers selected to travel to the Antarctic for the Fuchs Foundation Expedition. The meeting has been arranged by Tom Levitt MP for High Peak. A former science teacher, he has a particular interest in the project.
Organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Vivian Fuchs’ successful leadership of the Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition, the teachers were chosen through a competitive selection process to undertake scientific research in the Antarctic. The entire trip will be filmed by Teachers TV, the digital channel for those in education, and the science projects will be translated into teaching resources on their return. These resources will be peer-reviewed by the Scott Polar Research Institute before being published on the Fuchs Foundation website www.fuchsfoundation.org.
Teachers TV will produce two thirty documentaries on the experiences of the teachers, along with four resource programmes for direct use in the classroom. Currently under the working title of Sub-Zero Teachers, the programmes will be broadcast on Teachers TV in Spring 2008.
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For more information about the Fuchs Foundation, please contact Ann Fuchs on 01455 202370. Email: ann@fuchsfoundation.org. To find out more about Teachers TV, please contact Isobel Bradshaw 020 7400 4480/ibradshaw@hanovercomms.com.
EDITORS NOTES
Peter Fuchs, son of Sir Vivian Fuchs, pursued a career in the minerals industry until his retirement. Following his father’s death in 1999, he decided to find out what was so compelling about the Antarctic and took a Post Graduate Diploma in Antarctic studies at Canterbury University. He spent two weeks camping on the Ross Ice Shelf. Since 2005 he has been Chairman of the Trustees of the Fuchs Foundation.
Professor Lloyd Peck works for the British Antarctic Survey. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is a component of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, it has, for almost 60 years, undertaken the majority of Britain's scientific research on and around the Antarctic continent. It now shares that continent with scientists from over thirty countries. Sir Vivian Fuchs was their first Director. Lloyd Peck leads investigations into ice berg movement and its affects on animal life in the ocean and lectures widely and is in Brazil as part of the International Polar Year 2007/8 The Fuchs Foundation Antarctic Expedition 2007 celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the successfully completed Commonwealth Trans Antarctic Expedition, lead by Sir Vivian Fuchs. This expedition is the first of a series of scientific expeditions to be sent by the Foundation to the Polar Regions; the second is to the Arctic in 2009.
The Expedition Members are:
Philip Avery is KS3 coordinator for geography at Oxted School, Oxted.
Project: Temperature Torture
To cope with extreme cold should you be fat or fit? Lunching on lard or Weetabix?
Clothed in cotton or Gore Tex?
To cope with extreme cold should you be fat or fit? Lunching on lard or Weetabix?
Clothed in cotton or Gore Tex?
Phil will be trying to understand how humans survive temperatures as low as -90c (plus wind chill of course!). The team will be lending their bodies to the study and while surviving in Antarctica will have their faces and hands regularly plunged into iced water to see if it really does cause the heart rate to slow. The ice will not be the only thing that is blue!
Ruth Hollinger is a geography teacher at Tapton School, Sheffield.
Project: Take only photographs, leave only footprints, and tread lightly on the earth.
An ecological footprint is the measure of consumption of resources. It is calculated in terms of the total area of land required per person to meet their food, energy, raw material, water and wastewater disposal needs. The larger the footprint, the larger the impact. What impact will the Fuchs Foundation Teachers Expedition make?
An ecological footprint is the measure of consumption of resources. It is calculated in terms of the total area of land required per person to meet their food, energy, raw material, water and wastewater disposal needs. The larger the footprint, the larger the impact. What impact will the Fuchs Foundation Teachers Expedition make?
Project: Funky Fieldwork – A Virtual Fieldtrip to Union Glacier
In addition glaciological work will be undertaken on the Union Glacier measuring its characteristics and global warming. All results will be set up in a virtual fieldtrip.
In addition glaciological work will be undertaken on the Union Glacier measuring its characteristics and global warming. All results will be set up in a virtual fieldtrip.
Amy Rogers is a science teacher at Higham Lane School, Nuneaton.
Project: Naked in Antarctica (and loving it)
Lichens are one of the only living organisms that have adapted to survive the extreme conditions of the Antarctic continent. They are also extremely sensitive to environmental pollution and potentially can be used as bio-indicators for atmospheric changes resulting from human activity. The aim is to collect lichens and investigate their ecology in areas of Antarctica where they have not previously been studied.
Lichens are one of the only living organisms that have adapted to survive the extreme conditions of the Antarctic continent. They are also extremely sensitive to environmental pollution and potentially can be used as bio-indicators for atmospheric changes resulting from human activity. The aim is to collect lichens and investigate their ecology in areas of Antarctica where they have not previously been studied.
Ian Richardson is Head of Biology, Freman College, Buntingford, Hertfordshire. Project: There’s No Way to Degrade a Tardigrade!
Ian’s project aims to study the remarkable microfauna of the Ellsworth Mountains.
The qualities needed to survive the extraordinary environmental conditions of the inner reaches of the Antarctic continent are shown by a unique collection of microscopic organisms. Among them are the strange and cuddly tardigrades (or ‘Water Bears’). These creatures can enter a remarkable state of suspended animation called cryptobiosis, in which they can endure the most punishing temperatures with apparent ease. There are at least three species unique to the Ellsworth Mountains and we know little about them. Who knows what else we might find?
Ian’s project aims to study the remarkable microfauna of the Ellsworth Mountains.
The qualities needed to survive the extraordinary environmental conditions of the inner reaches of the Antarctic continent are shown by a unique collection of microscopic organisms. Among them are the strange and cuddly tardigrades (or ‘Water Bears’). These creatures can enter a remarkable state of suspended animation called cryptobiosis, in which they can endure the most punishing temperatures with apparent ease. There are at least three species unique to the Ellsworth Mountains and we know little about them. Who knows what else we might find?
Websites
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