Antarctic Training

Antarctic Training - Part 1

16 September 2013    Cambridge, UK

Before I can head down to Antarctica, I have to learn a bit about the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and some first aid skills. They held the training at Girton College, which was beautiful and historic itself. This trip was only the first part of the training - I get another 2-3 days of "on-site" training in Antarctica after we reach the base. Looking forward to learning some crevasse rescue techniques and other fun winter camping skills!

They don't make doors like
they used to...

The training was long hours of interesting powerpoint presentations about all aspects of life down South punctuated by numerous breaks for tea. I don't know how many cups of tea any one person here drinks, but there is tea with breakfast, tea at the midmorning break, tea after lunch, tea at the mid-afternoon break, and tea after dinner! But I digress...

The training for the first couple of days covered ship life, base life, field life, research (see cool sea spider picture: they brought him in from their Antarctic aquarium), teamwork, and other aspects that I don't think we'll cover here today.

Sea spider: I apologize for the lack of scale, but he's bigger than my hand. 

The second part of the week was all first aid training. We reviewed many things that I've had in classes before, but some new things: backboard stabilization for picking up by a helicopter or towing behind a skidoo. We also learned how to give injections. When we first walked in the room, they passed out the syringes, saline solution, and told us to roll up our sleeves so we could practice. We all sighed (a couple of people blanched)...and then they pulled out the oranges. Whew!



We also got to try on all our kit (gear) and make sure that everything fits. The gigantic duffel bag contains most of the special gear I'll need for the trip. Lots of fun things: Thermals, two kinds of boots, socks, fleece top and pants, warm jacket, a couple kinds of gloves, a couple of hats, sunglasses, and a bright orange worksuit. It was like Christmas, but with easy returns on the clothes if they didn't fit.



Despite the busy training schedule, I did get to see a bit of the city of Cambridge. It's known for all the beautiful schools and the canal that runs through town. I walked around several of the colleges, but I've always been a fan of buttresses on beautiful buildings, so I think that the chapel at King's College was my favorite. So much history!

The chapel was built over a 100-year period and under the direction/funding of 4 different kings. The history is all over inside the chapel, with the war of the roses featuring prominently in everything (you can see more details of the chapel history on their website). The family symbols (see photo below) were worked into the decorations in the chapel, including on the ceiling. I do find it interesting that I learned about much of this history (or at least vague ideas) from watching tv shows like "The White Queen" (BBC) or "The Tudors" (HBO). The details may be fiction, but the general succession and major events are correct, so it works :)

King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Another view of the chapel (left side of the picture).
The other buildings are parts of King's College and a couple of things further out in the city. 

Ornate ceiling (the largest example of its kind) and organ.

Symbols found all over the church, representing all the major players.  

The symbols decorating the church - it's cool to know what everything means.

I had a chance to stop in at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum - fun museum, especially in light of what I'm preparing for! The type of clothes/food/equipment that they had back then makes me quite thankful for the kit that we will be using this time. They had lots of fun artifacts from previous expeditions, including some interesting snowshoes - a point to anyone who can guess what animal they were for!

Interesting snowshoes at the museum - but who were they designed for?

The other main feature I saw in Cambridge was the canal that runs through it. You can hire boats and go punting on a nice afternoon - it was too cold on this visit, but I guess it's good to have a list for the next time I visit!

There's a canal where you can go punting - but too cold for this trip!

On the way back to the train station, I was struck by the incredible number of bikes in the parking area. I think they outnumbered cars in the parking lots by about 10:1. If only everywhere looked like this...

More bikes than cars in the train station parking lots.

Calling all future scientists!

Do you know any kids who might be interested in learning about Antarctica? Are you interested in learning more about the mysterious continent down south yourself? Read on to find out how!

As part of my postdoc, I'm headed to Antarctica in January 2014 (January 2-Feburary 10) to do geology field work in a remote mountain range from a camp based on the ice. I will be looking at how the ice sheet has thinned through time (geologic past, so over thousands of years). Ever since I was little, I have dreamed of going to Antarctica and I'm finally getting that chance. I'd like to take this opportunity to inspire any children who, like me, are curious about Antarctica and want to get their questions answered and I want to show them how cool science can be by sharing this opportunity (electronically) with as many people as possible.

Our neighbors at Rothera (the base). Photo: Andy Hein

My original thought was that kids might be interested in learning about Antarctica, but it turns out that there’s really no reason to limit this to kids! Anyone who’s interested is welcome to ask questions and participate, but I’m still reaching out to parents/friends/family of kids who might be interested in learning more about the mysterious, chilly continent down south. Kids are so curious and creative - I can't wait to see what they come up with! Being a scientist is about asking questions, so 'every child is a scientist' (as this article explains).

This is something that kids can do by themselves or with their classes at school, if parents/teachers are interested. If you have a teacher friend who might be interested, please feel free to share my contact info. I'm happy to develop something to work with as many or as few hours that they might want to put into this project. I’m also happy to continue this after returning and include information on Scotland as well :)

Thanks to Andy Hein for the photo!
See the research blog from last year here

I will be posting information online via my blog and twitter as I prepare to leave, while I'm down there in the field, and once I get back. I'm planning to document the regular living conditions pretty thoroughly since I don't even know what to expect so I assume other people will also be curious. In addition to just reading things on a website, I thought of some other fun ways to get involved with classes, even though I can't be there in person. Here are some of my ideas:

1.  Video chats: Video/skype chats before and after I go to explain what I'm going to be doing and then how things turned out. The internet is unfortunately not good enough to do anything like this directly from the base in Antarctica so it can only happen before and after. 

My little science explorer mascot :)

2.  Question/Experiment 'Scavenger Hunt': Before I go, everyone can help me make a list of questions or "experiments" for me to perform while I'm there. Kind of like a scavenger hunt for me once I arrive down South. The people on base are always happy to help with things like this so even if I don't know the answer (which will be common!), there will be lots of people down there who do lots of other things and they should be able to help. This means that everyone can ask a much broader range of questions and I can tweet/post answers as I go. I really hope someone wants to do this - I think it sounds like a lot of fun!

3. Questions for kids: I can ask them to figure things out or look up answers to questions I post and give out prizes to the first right answer when I get back (or postcards sent from Antarctica). 

4. Penguin Stories: I have a mascot that I will bring with me - a baby penguin. He's going in the field and he will help me tell my science story. Who doesn't like penguins? And penguins telling stories? What’s not to like?

5. Other directions: There are lots of general educational materials out there on Antarctica - as a research area, international treaty area, early explorer/adventure destination, climate change research center, etc. If there's a particular angle that a teacher or student is interested in, I can try to help steer a discussion in that direction and probably provide some educational materials as well.

Please talk this idea over with anyone you think might be interested in the opportunity to learn more about Antarctica and get back to me with your thoughts. I'm in the early planning stages and trying to get a feel for who might be interested and how this will work best for everyone.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

 Please feel free to contact me via the email listed on my university web page. I look forward to hearing from you if you are interested or if you just want to contribute your questions to the list!