With the end of the school year here, I really needed to get started on my PolarTREC projects that I'll be working on over the summer and into the early fall. First up was the flag project. This project is inspired by (well, really just stolen from) Jeff Peneston's project from his PolarTREC expedition in 2008 on the Oden. With the help of parent volunteers, I will be making blank 8"x12" nylon flags. Teachers can request a flag for their classroom to decorate and return it to me and I will take it on my expedition and post photos of the flags flying in various places on the ship and in Antarctica! After my trip I'll send the flags back to each teacher to hang in their classroom.See the entry below for complete details and instructions. Teachers can also email me at amwotkyns [at] polartrec.com to request a blank flag. I am asking for a donation from JoAnn's Fabrics for the rip-stop nylon and several of my students' parents have generously donated JoAnn's gift cards to help defray the costs of this project. Another friend has donated the envelopes I'll use to mail out the flags.
Another project idea I got (OK, stole) from Jeff was to make life-sized fabric models of animals I am likely to see on my expedition. My students researched pictures and found the sizes of the animals (seals, albatross, penguins) and our teacher assistant Robin helped me use a digital projector to outline the animals on large sheets of paper. In the fall, we will transfer the tracings to thick fabric, cut them out, and paint them. Then we'll have fabric cut-out animals to help students understand the actual sizes of animals from Antarctica. I'm hoping my JoAnn's donations and gift-cards will help make this project a reality too!
Lesson Learned: You can't have too many creative or generous friends!