Phone call from Antarctica!
Dr. Steve Hasiotis, Dr. Peter Flaig and Dr. Brian called us from Antarctica today, January 11th. It was 12:15 P.M. here on Tuesday but it was 7:30 A.M. on Wednesday for them. They called from a remote camp on the Beardmore glacier via satellite phone. We put them on speaker phone and gathered around to ask questions about the many emails they have sent us. One question was, what caused the mass extinction between the Permia and Triassic periods. The answer was complex. They don't think it was just one event, but many events over a half million years that caused two different extinctions. Some of the climate change was probably caused by volcanoes, some by a rising ocean and some by a comet or meteo. No one knows for sure but this is the best guess right now. There were many more questions. Watch for our comments on the blog where we will tell about what we learned from this amazing phone call!
Scientific Terminology
Vocabulary Presentations
We recently read through a document explaining what the scientists would be doing in Antarctica. There were many vocabulary words that we were unfamiliar with and so we decided we needed to come up with a way to learn these words. We divided into small groups and each group was given 4 words to look up. After looking up the definitions, we had to come up a with an interesting way to present these words to the class. Some of us sang songs, some created a game or power point, and some groups even put on a skit!
The presentations allowed us to learn words we otherwise may never know. We also have a better understanding of what the scientists are doing and looking for while in Antarctica.
Below are some pictures of our presentations!
