Teachers keep their cool over polar expedition

Four teachers that are to head off on an Antarctic expedition have been put through their paces at a sports science centre in preparation for their trip.

Sports scientists at Portsmouth University put the teachers through a series of tests to make sure they could handle the harsh conditions of the Antarctic.

The teachers - sponsored by the Fuchs Foundation - will venture to the Elsworth Mountains, Antarctica in November and carry out science projects while coping with the extremes of the climate. They will also map out the ecological footprint of the expedition itself to determine the environmental impact of the group’s polar mission.

Once in Antarctica, the teachers will interact with students back in England live via weblogs, chat forums and streaming video on the internet.

Phil Avery, who teaches geography at Oxted School, and will be one of the teachers on the expedition, said: “We will be on the ice taking cues from our students back in England who might want us to experiment with various things that they are curious about. It's a fantastic interactive way of taking science into the classroom in a way that really captivates the students’ imagination.”

Each teacher has been tested by scientists at the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Sport and Exercise Science to make sure they are up to the task of going into one of the planet’s most inhospitable regions.

The other three teachers set to conduct projects on the trip are Ruth Hollinger - a geography teacher at Tapton School in Sheffield, Amy Rogers - a science teacher at Higham Lane School in Nuneaton and Ian Richardson - head of biology at Freman College in Hertfordshire.

The Fuchs Foundation aims to inspire future generations by sending young teachers to the Polar Regions to do scientific projects in hostile environments and was set up in memory of Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs (1908-1999) - an English explorer whose expeditionary team completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 1958.