Because it seemed like a good idea at the time....: Science for the Classroom

We have been in touch with some teachers that are interested in including polar studies in their curriculum. We aren't scientists, but we do have some resources we would love to share about current research here in Antarctica. We have information for teachers along with handouts created by scientists for outreach work. If you would like a copy of these, please email us at rockycrasher@gmail.com and we will get the documents to you.

WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Sub-Glacial Access Research Drilling)

Here is an excerpt from their website, "Over the last several decades, by using ground penetrating radar and other remote sensing tools, scientists have discovered that under the massive Antarctic ice sheets there lies a vast hydrological system of liquid water. This water exists because geothermal heat flow from below, coupled with pressure, movement, and the insulating nature of the ice sheet above, is great enough to maintain some areas at the base of the ice sheet above the freezing point, even in the extreme cold of Antarctica. In topographic depressions there are hundreds of lakes, both large and small; some are isolated, but many are interconnected by water channels and large areas of saturated sediments, the water eventually running out into the Southern Ocean as the ice sheet becomes a floating ice shelf."

For more information please go to:

Long Duration Balloons

NASA is about to launch the second Long Duration Balloon to collect data on cosmic rays in the stratosphere on the edge of outer space!
For more information please go to:

http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm

WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet)

Here is an excerpt from their website: "The U.S. research community is conducting a deep ice coring project in West Antarctica for studies of climate, ice sheet history and cryobiology. This project is collecting a deep ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) ice flow divide and integrating approximately 40 separate but synergistic projects to analyze the ice and interpret the records. On December 31, 2011 the project reached its final depth goal of 3,405 meters, recovering the longest U.S. ice core to date from the polar regions."