A group of eighth graders took flight recently from The Learning Community in Central Falls and began exploring Antarctica through the firsthand experiences of Ocean State researcher Abigail Bockus.

“Hey guys, my name is Abigail and I’m a scientist at the University of Rhode Island,” Bockus said in her first video feed to the classroom. “I thought it would be really cool to tell you guys what life is like down here and what kind of science we’re up to.”

Supported by Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), Bockus is spending the winter in the South Pole with a group of scientists from URI and Rutgers University. The researchers are studying how krill populations in the Southern Ocean will react to climate change.

Any decrease in the krill population threatens the viability of the ecosystem because of the tiny crustacean’s primary role in the marine food chain. Krill feed on phytoplankton and serve, in turn, as the diet of larger animals.

For Bockus, the four-month research trip based at the Palmer Station on the Western Antarctic Peninsula offers a unique opportunity to pursue her science and share the experience with the students, who live in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.

With the South Pole as her backdrop, she spoke directly to the class in a video she had uploaded a few nights earlier: “We don’t have much time together, but over the next eight weeks, I want to teach you guys as much as I can about the Antarctic ecosystem.”

Prior to leaving on her adventure in November, Bockus worked with The Learning Community, a K-8 public charter school, and Tim Pelletier, Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR outreach and education coordinator, to design a weekly video feed that aligns content with the state’s Grade Span Expectations (GSEs) and links to the school curriculum.

“This is an amazing opportunity, to have Antarctica delivered to the classroom, and to have the classroom delivered to Antarctica,” Pelletier said. “It’s an experience the students would not get otherwise. Through the efforts of Abigail, the school staff and Rhode Island EPSCoR, these students can see firsthand what ‘science’ looks like outside of a book, their school, and even their community.”

Exploring beyond classroom walls

Carey Bledsoe, middle grades co-coordinator and instructional coach at The Learning Community, said the introductory video from Bockus provided the perfect spark for conversation about creating hypotheses, formulating predictions and anticipating expectations.

Bledsoe asked students: “If you were a research scientist, where would you go?” and “What would you study?”

Students engaged in a “turn and talk” activity, turning to their neighbors and sharing their ideas and dreams. Conversations imagined research in Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela and Spain. One student wanted to study the periodic tables; another, volcanoes in Hawaii.

Pelletier observed that the personal interaction with Bockus, including classroom visits upon her return and the firsthand exposure to the Antarctica research, offered a valuable learning model that can be used in other schools.

On the flip side, Pelletier said, the project gave Bockus an educational opportunity as well: “Part of being a scientist is learning how to get the information from the scientist to the people; how to get the message across and in what format.”

He added that the Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR program links two typically diverse educational populations — middle school and graduate students — with the intended consequence of demonstrating what opportunities exist: “There is no better way to develop the next generation of scientists than to provide a direct link like this to what is possible.”

Living and learning on a glacier

Prior to moving into her current role at the school, Bledsoe taught science for 13 years. The South Pole project with Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR brought her back to the classroom. In 2004, she spent a month in the Gulf of Alaska with NOAA scientists engaged in the first project to map the underwater sea mountains in that region.

“Part of science is learning the scientific method,” Bledsoe explained. “How did she decide to study krill, what was the hypothesis? How can we use the information we gained by watching these videos? How does it change the way we think about science and the world around us?”

She added, “Students see what a real scientist looks like — a young woman in Antarctica, not someone in a lab coat, in a laboratory. Seeing science in the real world can grab their attention in a new way and change what they think science means.”

As the video feed aired, the class listened intently, delighting in pictures of penguins and seals. The students were amazed to hear that the sun’s reflection off the ice was so strong that scientists had to apply sunscreen inside their nostrils to prevent sunburn.

Bockus showed flags marking a trail on the glacier to indicate where scientists could walk and avoid deadly falls into crevasses. She described time off on the weekends for recreational boating, but noted the hazards of quickly changing weather patterns. Standing outside without a coat, Bockus said the temperature reached about 40 degrees fahrenheit (five degrees celsius) the day she filmed the video.

At the video’s end, Bledsoe instructed the class to complete the first entry in their Expedition Journal: “First, determine the overall topic, what Abigail was trying to get across. Second, write about something new that we learned. Third, write a question we can ask Abigail and the other scientists.”

One student wondered, “How do they catch the krill?”

Another asked, “Are there plants?”

Bledsoe responded, “Those are good questions! Let’s ask her. This is going to be a weekly conversation to give us a deeper understanding of real research. We are part of this expedition, not just watching it. Pretty awesome, right?”

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle