Geography - Teaching On Ice

Phil has written two lesson plans based on his experience of recording and analysing data on weather and psychological effects. The lessons are for Key Stage 3 and 4 students and draw upon a data spreadsheet, a questionnaire, and a previous entry on this blog.

The lessons explore the effects of an extreme environment on humans, and include:

• creating a graph
• interpreting evidence
• generating a hypothesis
• note-taking
• creating a questionnaire
• presentation

Download the lesson plans, questionnaire and spreadsheet from the links below.

Lesson plans
Weather data spreadsheet
Daily questionnaire

The scale of Antarctic landscapes is incredible

Vectors - so which trace is pulling the sledge the
most forwards?

En route to our remote camp

A great explorer's photo of the Union Glacier

Twin Otter skiplanes are the taxis of Antarctica

We've come from here, we're heading that way

The tools of science, Amy holds a brush for
sweeping snow off lichens and Ruth holds an ice
axe for chipping out cryoconite

Carl checking our altitude and route on the GPS

The Antarctic landscape is simple, but spectacular

A crevasse that we spotted and dug out … we
couldn’t see the bottom

The daily food intake for two people

Sedimentary rocks spectacularly folded

Uphill sledge hauling is not something that could be
done alone

Keeping the snow of my beard was tricky

My home for five weeks

When hauling, my breath froze to my beard

Here are some highlights from Phil's expedition, in pictures.

Our highest camp at the top of the Connell Canyon Pass
– at a height of 1562m

Lenticular clouds formed as air is forced to rise by the
mountains

Crevasses were a constant headache

Ilyushin jet

Midnight on a cloudy day

Phil Avery

Sledge hauling

Sledge hauling

Wind speeds gusting to about 70 mph, in Patriot Hills