Television Shows with Penguins: Jake's Cool New Matey Episode

The "Jake's Cool New Mate" episode of Jake and the Never Land Pirates is about a penguin named Percy coming ashore Pirate Island in search of Chi-Chi-Chilly Canyon (a part of Never Land that is winter all year long) for his penguin colony to move to because their current colony broke apart.  The episode is rather a poor representation of penguins because it seems to try to properly represent them, but then it has the penguin joking about being chased by polar bears, which is so inaccurate of an idea that it rather taints the episode from even being a fun fantasy representation of penguins.  It is one thing to portray fictional penguins as cartoon characters, but I cannot stand the way it seems to imply that polar bears and penguins coexist naturally.

Kate Upton Sports Illustrated Bikini Photo Shoot in Antarctica

Recently Kate Upton did a bikini photo shoot in the Antarctic.  Sure, seems cold for such a thing, especially since it was not related to swimming in the hot water I remember doing on my Antarctic Cruise.  However, she did cover up in warm clothes mostly and only was in the bikini only for a few minutes at a time.  It also appears she was always wearing some nice and warm looking white boots.

It appears this photo shoot was also related to the recent Oreo delivery to Palmer Station, as some pictures released show her with the Oreo man.

Oreo gives cookies and solar penguin cam to Palmer Station to celebrate its 100th Birthday

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Oreo cookies as well as Scott reaching the South Pole (it was not discovered the same year as Oreos were first made, as this article states, as Amundsen reached it first/discovered the South Pole in December 1911).  To celebrate the centennial, Oreo recently delivered 5,000 cookies to those working at Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula.  Oreo also donated a solar Penguin Cam, which is the first of its kind in Antarctica.

Race to the South Pole WebQuest

Introduction

In June 1910, the Terra Nova expedition left Wales.  Robert Falcon Scott led the expedition, although he left England separately and joined the crew on the Terra Nova in South Africa later.  The main goals of the expedition were to reach the South Pole and carry out scientific research.  The goal of reaching the South Pole became somewhat of a race to be the first when in October 1910 Scott learned that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen was also making an attempt to reach the South Pole (South-pole.com, n.d.).

On January 3, 1912, Scott and four other men began the final push to the South Pole.  They reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, only to discover that Amundsen had beat them to the pole on December 14, 1911.  While they did not fail to reach the pole, Scott’s polar party failed to be first and failed to return home, as all five perished on their way back from the South Pole (South-pole.com, n.d.).

Task

You have been recruited to be a team that plans to retrace Scott’s final expedition.  While the expedition plans to stay true to the historic time period of the expedition, the main mission of your expedition is to successfully reach the South Pole and return home safely.  Use the provided information sources to learn about how things went wrong for Scott and how Amundsen’s expedition was more successfully carried out, and then create a proposal of what your expedition will do differently.  Remember to try and stick with what resources were at least potentially available to Scott in 1912.

Information Sources

Cool Antarctica. (n.d.). Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) Norwegian Antarctic Expedition 1910–1912.  Retrieved from http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/roald amundsen.htm

Cool Antarctica. (n.d.). Roald Amundsen - crew of the Fram Norwegian South Pole Expedition 1910–1911.  Retrieved from http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/antarctic_whos_who_fram.htm

Cool Antarctica. (n.d.). Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) page 2 The Terra Nova Expedition 1910-13.  Retrieved from http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/Robert Falcon Scott2.htm

Cool Antarctica. (n.d.). Robert Falcon Scott – the journey to the pole.  Retrieved from http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/Robert Falcon Scott3.htm

Race for the Pole. (n.d.). Race for the pole: Historical acts of courage and endeavour told as the events unfold.  Retrieved from http://raceforthepole.co.uk/

South-pole.com. (n.d.).  Roald Amundsen.  Retrieved from http://www.south-pole.com/p0000101.htm

South-pole.com. (n.d.). The Terra Nova Expedition 1910-13.  Retrieved from http://www.south-pole.com/p0000090.htm

Process

Step 1: Working in groups of at least two, determine who will research and make notes about Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913) and who will research and make notes about Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian Antarctic expedition (1910-1912).

Step 2a – Robert Falcon Scott: This step is for those in your group that will research and make notes about Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913).  Read through the information about his expedition using the below resources.  As you read make notes about the expedition with particular focus on things that went wrong.  Do not forget to note what the expedition’s strengths were, such as what they did right or well.

• Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition 1910-13
• Robert Falcon Scott’s Journey to the Pole
• The Terra Nova Expedition 1910-13

Step 2b – Roald Amundsen: This step is for those in your group that will research and make notes about Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian Antarctic expedition (1910-1912).  Read through the information about his expedition using the below resources.  As you read make notes about the expedition with particular focus on what you think helped the expedition reach the South Pole before Scott as well as successfully return from Antarctica.  You should also make note of any weaknesses or mistakes made.

• Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) Norwegian Antarctic Expedition 1910–1912
• Crew of the Fram
• Roald Amundsen

Step 3: After everyone in your group has finished making notes, come back together and decide on a note taker to make notes on each expedition’s strengths and weaknesses that come to light as each member shares their notes from step 2 with the group.  Even if you are not the note taker, you should help ensure the note taker writes has written down the key points from your step 2 research.

Step 4: As a group brainstorm how you the reenactment of Scott’s expedition should be carried out.  In particular, discuss what you would do differently from what Scott did and how you might incorporate strengths you learned from Amundsen’s success.  Browse the Race for the Pole website for more information on Scott’s and Amundsen’s expeditions including their journals.  Before continuing on to step 5, create an outline of what main aspects your group would change and keep the same for the reenactment expedition.

Step 5: Create a proposal outlining what you would do different from Robert Falcon Scott and why.  You can choose to create a video, Word document, or PowerPoint presentation as your final product.

Guidance/Evaluation

	Exemplary 4	Accomplished 3	Developing 2	Beginning 1	Points
Step 2 Notes	Student has clear and thorough notes for the sources they were assigned to look at for the group.	Student’s notes are missing key points from their assigned sources and/or notes are unclear.	Student’s notes include only one or two key points.	Student makes no notes or too unclearly recorded to understand.
Group Notes	Notes include several key points on strengths and weaknesses about both Scott’s and Amundsen’s expeditions.	Notes include key points about both expeditions, but are missing one or two key points from group members Step 2 notes.	Notes only features key points from one expedition or are missing many key points recorded in Step 2.	No notes are recorded.
Proposal Outline	Outline features at least 3 examples of what the reenactment will do differently from Scott and what it will do the same as Scott.	Outline features only two examples of what the reenactment will do differently from Scott and/or what it will do the same as Scott.	Outline features only one example of what the reenactment will do differently from Scott or what it will do the same as Scott.	Outline is not done or it is unclear whether the key points are what will be done differently or the same.
Final Proposal	Proposal clearly explains how the reenactment should be carried out.  Proposal is also free of grammatical errors.	Proposal fails to address one key point about what might be done differently from Scott’s expedition and/or contains a few grammatical errors.	Proposal fails to incorporate knowledge learned about both expeditions and/or has many grammatical errors.	No final proposal is done, the final proposal does not include what would be done differently, or it has so many errors it is hard to understand.
Total Points

Conclusion

By successfully completing this WebQuest, you have learned about the Race to the South Pole including the tragedies and successes.  You have also considered how things could be done differently in order for there to be a successful reenactment of Scott’s final expedition.  You may be interested in the below books to learn more about Scott, Amundsen, and early 1900 Antarctic exploration.

• The Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford – This book is a dual biography of Scott and Amundsen.
• Let Heroes Speak: Antarctic Explorers, 1772-1922 by Michael H. Rosove – This book covers 25 of the early Antarctic expeditions from when Cook discovered Antarctica in 1772 and the British Imperial Expedition of 1920-22.
• The South Pole by Roald Amundsen – This is a first hand account of Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole.
• Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White – This is a fictional book about teens competing in a Historical Survivor TV series that has them reenacting Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.
• The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard – This book focuses more on the scientific aspect of the Terra Nova expedition and is written by one of the men that was in the search party that discovered Scott’s body and journal.

Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin Ride Vehicle Unveiled

Sea World has unveiled a new style of ride vehicle that will be used in their Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin ride scheduled to open in Orlando in the Spring of 2013.  The ride vehicle is a circular simulator car that will allow guests to customize their experience to different levels of motion intensity.  The vehicle is designed to make it be like a penguin sliding on ice.  Each vehicle has two rows of 4.  Learn more about it here.

Related Links:

•  New Details on Empire of the Pengun Ride Coming to Sea World Orlando in 2013
•  Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin Area Coming to Sea World Orlando in 2013

Antarctic sea ice increasing due to changing wind

In recent years there has been a lot of news about climate change and decreasing sea ice in the Arctic.  In the Antarctic there has also been a lot of talk about climate change including ice shelves collapsing, but interestingly the sea ice has been found to be increasing overall.  It appears that changing winds is causing an increase in sea ice.  Learn more from NASA here.

Feature Length Horror Film Shot in Antarctica

South of Sanity is claiming to be the first fictional full feature film to be made in Antarctica and it easily could be.  It is a horror movie made by British Antarctic Survey scientists and other staff in Antarctica.  The movie is about a killer at an Antarctic base. The film is premiering in Aviemore, Scotland on October 31, 2012.

Related Links:

• Scot shoots first fictional feature in Antarctica

Special Ale Developed to Withstand -90 degrees for Antarctic Researchers

Pole-Axed is a special brew that has been developed so that British researchers in Antarctica can enjoy ale.  The brew is designed to withstand up to negative 90 degree temperatures and retain its taste.  Typically ales cannot really be enjoyed in Antarctica because they freeze and lose their flavor, but this year the British team that will be at the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica will have Pole-Axed to enjoy.

Related Articles:

• Special brew: Parched British South Pole explorers to get new beer which won't freeze until MINUS 90 degrees

Brazil to Rebuild Comandante Ferraz Base

In February 2012, the Brazilian Comandante Ferraz Base was 70% destroyed by a fire.  Next month as the Antarctic summer season begins they will set up some temporary installations for some research and support to take place.  Additionally, they will begin to work on taking apart the parts of the base affected by the fire.  They plan to begin rebuilding in November 2013.

Related Articles:

• Brazil to begin rebuilding its burned Antarctic base
• 2 Brazilian Sailors die in Antarctic Base Fire

Scott's Terra Nove Ship Found

The wreck of Scott's Terra Nova ship was rediscovered earlier this year (July 2012) off the coast of Greenland.  The ship was the one used as part of Scott's final Antarctic expedition in which he died on the return trip from the South Pole.  This year is the 100th anniversary of that expedition, but the Terra Nova ship was actually still used for another three decades after the expedition and did not sink until 1943.  The ship was damaged by ice off the southwestern tip of Greenland while it was carrying supplies to base stations in Greenland.  The crew were saved by the United States Coast Guard and they fired bullets into the ship to sink it.  The wreck is said to be deep and in bad condition (somewhat excessively due to the way it was sunk), so no salvage is expected.

Related Articles:

• Wreck of Captain Scott's ship discovered off Greenland