I, Gary Wesche, am the last polartrec teacher for the polar year 2009-2010.
All 18 teachers applied October 1, 2008 and were selected in January 2009. The last week of February 2009 we met in Fairbanks, Alaska for training. A week after that the first teacher of the year, Deanna Wheeler, left on her expedition. Now the last 5 polartrec teachers are in the field and 4 of us are passing though McMurdo working with our expedition teams or preparing to go into the field. I want you to meet two of them here in my journal in hopes that you will read their journals as well. Each one of them is journaling about their experiences. Each project is unique. Each brings such an interesting background to the teaching profession.
Gary, Sarah, and Heidi overlooking the sea ice
Sarah Diers is headed today to the Dry Valley's of Antarctica. She will be helping her team collect water and ice cores to study the microbial communities found in the Transantarctic Mountains and the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Sarah has had many experiences in the Arctic and her journals are wonderful to read.
Heidi Roop will be handling ice cores that are 3,500 meters long. These cores are extracted from the ice of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet using a large hollow drill. The ice cores, recovered by the WAIS Divide Ice Core Drilling team during this project, will show annual resolution, or distinct yearly markings, for the past 40,000 years! On a fun note Heidi won the Turkey Trot women's division. This is the annual 5k race held here in McMurdo Station on Thanksgiving.
Heidi Roop in her pink superwoman cape wins the women's Turkey Trot. Go Polartrec
Sarah leaves McMurdo today for the Dry Valleys and Heidi is already on the West Antarctica Ice Sheet. Also check out Casey O'Hara who is at the South Pole, and Michelle Cross who is here near McMurdo with the undersea ROV project.
These Polartrec teachers, Heidi Roop, Gary Wesche, and Sarah Diers enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables made available to them at McMurdo Station
Happy Trekking, Trekkers Mr. W