FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 3, 2002
For more information contact:
Kathleen Carpenter, Director of Promotions
E-Mail: kathleen@teachers.net
Classes can sign up for e-mails from South Pole
SAN DIEGO, CA -- When U.S. Coast Guard Operation Deep Freeze goes to the South Pole to re-supply and support scientific research stations on the frozen continent, Teachers.Net readers will be part of the action. And teachers from all over will be able to sign up to have their classrooms receive weekly e-mail updates about the project and polar weather conditions directly from U.S. Coast Guard air crew stationed in Antarctica. Teachers who sign up will be able to offer their students the unique and exciting opportunity to receive eye-witness accounts and photos of the operation. Aviators will answer questions from students, and transmit digital photos from the icebound continent.
U.S. Coast Guard Operation Deep Freeze embarks annually to the South Pole to re-supply and support scientific research stations on the frozen continent. Coast Guard Lt. Marshall Branch is the officer and helicopter pilot who will be coordinating the project with Teachers.Net and with classroom teachers who sign up to participate. He will also contribute articles about the activities of Operation Deep Freeze from Antarctica, to be published in the monthly Teachers.Net Gazette webzine http://teachers.net/gazette through February 2003. The first article, including stunning photographs of an earlier South Pole project, is online at http://teachers.net/gazette.
Operation Deep Freeze is part of the mission to deliver fuel, building supplies, provisions, and equipment to the 250 year-round and 1,500 seasonal residents of the frozen research facility on Antarctica using Coast Guard icebreakers and their aviation detachments ("AVDET’s"). In addition, each icebreaker embarks up to 50 scientists from colleges and universities across America to conduct research aboard the vessels. Each vessel is fitted with multiple laboratories, sample collection equipment, and work spaces for the scientists to comfortably continue their studies. Their research is as varied as their university affiliations. Study of ice cores, plankton, seabed soil, weather and ocean current patterns, and polar wildlife are all projects undertaken on each deployment.
When asked what prompted him to initiate contact with Teachers.Net seeking alliances with teachers during Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica, Lt. Branch responded, "My mother and wife are both elementary teachers, so I have a soft spot for supporting projects that can make learning more interesting for the students. And both have done Antarctica lesson plans in the past. It seemed like it would make it that much more interesting for the kids if they could get news from someone actually there." Lt. Branch continued, "I'm really just a pilot who wanted to share experiences with the kids, with the endorsement of my command."
Teachers wishing to sign up for the project may contact Teachers.Net Gazette Editor Kathleen Carpenter by e-mail at kathleen@teachers.net or LT. Marshall Branch of the USCG Polar Operations Division at jbranch@atc.uscg.mil. Additional details and information about the project are available in the September issue of the Teachers.Net Gazette.