Students in Stacey Sebert’s class at Sand Creek Middle School were able to video conference with scientists at Palmer Station, a long-term ecological research station in the western peninsula of Antarctica. Sand Creek students, along with a few other schools, were a part of the video conference, asking questions to the scientists who are studying mammals in Antarctica.
Some of the questions that were asked included: “What made you decide to become a scientist and travel to Palmer Station?”, “What is your favorite thing to research down there?”, “How do you connect with other countries about your research?”, and “What is the most difficult thing you have had to do down there?”. Researchers discussed their life at Palmer Station (playing soccer in the halls, sleeping in the dorms…) as well as the research they do (using drones to study whale and seal populations) and much, much more.
Students commented afterwards: “The amount of commitment put into the research is fascinating. The researchers risk their lives to spend so long studying what they love and that is inspiring. They do so much, they leave their family, home, and friends just to explore and understand how the climate is changing and how it affects the Earth. I would love to see and help the animals they study and I give complete acknowledgement to those researchers.” and “Scientists are a primary source to find out what is going on with the sea ice and glacial ice melting and how it is affecting the plants and animals down in Antarctica. If we try to look up the information on the internet then we don’t know if the facts that we are reading are true or false but with the scientists stationed down at Palmer Station we can believe that their facts are true and we can be 99.9 percent sure that the facts they give us are true.”
The link to watch the entire video conference is below:
https://rutgers.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/PalmerVTC_SciTools6-8_021319/1_090hveyq