Cool Science

Cool Science.
Christchurch students find out about global warming by dialling Antarctica.
by Bette Flagler. Danielle Nossiter, Anna Howley, Aleyce Thompson and Shelby Generfaas were among more than 1,000 students that teacher Donald Reid took to Antarctica in November. But the girls - part of Colin Price's year 10 science class at Christchurch's Hornby High - didn't need to worry about frostbite. They travelled to the icy continent virtually, as part of a Learnz field trip.

 

Learnz - which stands for Linking Education and Antarctic Research in New Zealand - began in 1995 as an education programme that focused on Antarctic science research. Since then, the field trips have expanded to other topics. Last year Learnz held 19 field trips around New Zealand and Mr Price's class took a virtual field trip to the West Coast's Stockton mine when they studied energy and earth science.

 

Global warming certainly gets a lot of attention on the news and most of the research conducted in Antarctica is concerned in some way with climate change. So going to Antarctica fitted well with the last topic Mr Price's science class studied before the summer holidays: the environment.

 

Once a class decides to participate in a Learnz programme, students and teachers can use the online resources compiled by Mr Reid and other Learnz staff. Over the course of Mr Reid's time in Antarctica, more than 60 primary and secondary classes from Northland to Invercargill interacted with the programme. On the day that Hornby High called Antarctica, three others classes - including Ilam School and Linwood College in Christchurch and Tahuna Normal Intermediate in Dunedin - also dialled up Antarctica at the appointed time and took turns asking Mr Reid and the scientists questions.

 

"I'm in Antarctica," Mr Reid began the conference. "I'll tell you more about it later, but I did wake up in a snow cave this morning!" Even though camping out is a great adventure (and Mr Reid posted photos from his campout on his blog), it isn't the main reason for his trip to Antarctica. He is there to focus on Andrill, a multinational Antarctic drilling project. Andrill scientists from New Zealand, US, Italy and Germany prepared for four years for the most ambitious sea floor-drilling project ever undertaken at the edge of the Antarctic continent. The goal of the project is to recover 1,200 metres of sediment core from the seabed under the McMurdo Ice Shelf. These cores will act as geologic 'tape recorders' of what the environmental conditions in the area have been like over the past 10 million years. They'll also provide a better understanding of future climate patterns and change. And they hope to fi nd out how quickly ice sheets collapsed in the past when the average global temperatures were up to 3�C warmer than they are now.

 

It took a lot of engineering to be able to retrieve the sediment core. Imagine this: the drill rig sits on top of and then passes through 85 metres of fl oating ice. Then it has to go through 800 metres of seawater before drilling into the sea fl oor. QUESTION TIME Once the teleconference begins, Danielle Nossiter asks the fi rst question from Hornby High: "Have you had any technical problems in drilling?"

 

Tim Naish, co-chief scientist on the project answers from Scott Base: "Yes, we have had some technical diffi culties to date. The biggest problem we had was getting our drill into the sea fl oor. What we're doing is hanging a piece of metal from a drill rig. And it goes through 85 metres of ice, then through almost 900 metres of water and then we're pushing into the sea floor. There are currents under there and the ice is going up and down with each tide. It's a little bit like dangling a piece of string in the wind and watching it flick around. Getting that drill pipe right took about three weeks but now we're into the sea fl oor. Once we got it into the sea fl oor, we poured concrete down it and made it really stable. And now we're able to drill and we've had a lot of success. We're now down 130 metres and we're getting really good core samples from the rock below."

 

After Tim answered Danielle's question, the other schools ask questions of Tim, fellow scientist Gary Wilson and Mr Reid, who acts as the moderator. Most of the questions were prepared in advance, but there was also room for spontaneous discussion and questions. The level of activity and interaction varies between classes: some will simply use the online resource material, including the archived tele- and videoconferences and the daily blog that Mr Reid posted from 'the Ice'. Others attended videoconferences at the Christchurch Learning Centre that were broadcast from Antarctica New Zealand's Scott Base. And others - like Mr Price's class - submitted questions in advance and then dialled in to a teleconference where they could talk to the scientists at work.

 

But just as the scientists had to prepare for a long time before they could begin drilling, classes prepare in advance for the conference. As the class discusses the topic, everyone contributes ideas and together, says Mr Price, comes up with questions to submit. Mr Reid was impressed by the students' questions. "One student asked, 'If Antarctica was warm and has become cold, can that happen to New Zealand in the future?' That kind of question," Mr Reid says, "indicates students not only understand changes that have happened to Antarctica, but are looking at the consequences of future climate change." Some of the questions also asked the scientists to make value judgements. One student asked if the scientists thought all the media hype around global warming was warranted. That's the kind of question that you can't easily answer from a book - it's a lot more inter- esting to interact with people who are doing the work and have a solid understanding of the environment, the science that's going on, and what it means to Earth.

 

The field trips add new dimensions to teaching science class, says Mr Reid. "Whether it's on the West Coast at a coal mine or in Antarctica, now we have the ability to have someone there," says Mr Price. It sure makes it a lot more interesting and fun when you need to get a question answered. "Now we just go talk to someone in Antarctica!" adds Alyce Thompson.

 

Links
www.learnz.org.nz

 

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