Antarctica

Did you know that Antarctica is the coldest place on earth? In fact the lowest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica is -89.2°C. Then if you add the wind chill factor, the temperature can go as low as – 100°C.

So, if you walked outside into -100°C without wearing the proper clothing you would die in a minute. The moisture in your blood would freeze and set like jelly!

• Explore this website to see how temperature can affect your body. What is temperature?
• Do you and your friends get cold easily? Try this simple temperature chart (Word, 37 KB) to record your friend's temperature throughout the day.

Open these three websites to find more interesting information about the animal life in Antarctica.

• Marine mammals
• How emperor penguins keep themselves warm
• Photos of Antarctic animals

By the late 19th century, Antarctica was the last unexplored continent on earth. Unknown whale and seal hunters were probably the first humans to set foot on the continent, but it was not until the 20th century that Britain, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France and Belgium began competing against each other to discover the South Pole and claim it as their new territory.

This is the advertisement that Ernest Shackleton placed in the newspaper for his trip to the South Pole:

Design this advertisement as it would appear in a newspaper you would buy today. What words would you choose to encourage people to join Shackleton's expedition team?

You need to attract people's attention so think about using:

• positive, exciting, eye-catching words
• images
• different fonts
• colours.

When flying to Antarctica people need to be properly dressed. Providing warmth and protection from the harsh Antarctic elements (cold, ice, and wind) can be difficult.

• Explore this webpage to find out what clothing you need to take.
• Open this Clothing Checklist (Word, 66 KB) and fill in the table.

Or –

'Man is unique amongst animals in that he can live in the widest range of environments from extreme heat to extreme cold.'

• Draw a poster to show what you think this phrase means.

Different types of snow are caused by many different shapes of snowflakes.

• This website explains how snow is formed
• Do you know how a machine makes snow?
• How does cold weather make snow?
• Why not make snow cones to eat? (Word, 29 KB)
• Try your hand at making paper snow flakes or make a snow flake on the computer

Explorers often kept records of their thoughts, observations, and details of events from their lives. They usually kept illustrations (photographed or hand drawn) as records in their journals.

• Read about some famous Antarctic explorers from the list of websites below.
• Write a journal entry making sure you include events from the websites, personal feelings, experiences, predictions of events to come, and observations from your chosen explorer.
• Here are a couple of journal examples for you to see how they are written:

• Journal Examples (Word, 27 KB)

• So what was the race between Shackleton and Scott?
• To plan an expedition to Antarctica you need to be well prepared.
  Explore the Cool Antarctica website to learn the hardships that Shackleton and his crew went through as they raced to the South pole. This timeline will also help you.
• Visit Robert Scott's hut to see what conditions they lived in.
• Find out about the other famous Antarctic explorers, including:
  • Captains James Ross and Francis Crozier - two of the 19th century's bravest and most successful polar explorers. Together they discovered the Ross Dependency, the piece of Antarctica that is claimed by New Zealand.
  • Roald Amundsen - the first person to the South pole.