Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/15/2006 - 08:03

Hi Mrs. Kaden, how are  you doing?  We miss back here in Brownville and hope you come back home soon and safely.  We have some quesions we would like to ask you:

Are there any sled dogs and if you do can you send pictures? Ivan

Are there any igloos there? Chris

What is the actual purpose of the expedition? What are you trying to find out? Jesus

What kind of computer are is the crew using? Albert

From your awesome third period students Ivan, Chris, Jesse, Hai, and......Albert who always tags along  

Ute Kaden

Sled dogs have been banned from Antarctica due to the “concern that dogs might introduce disease and that they might break free and disturb or attack native wildlife” (British Antarctic Survey). However, Sled dogs have played an exceptionally important role in Antarctic exploration. The success of many early expeditions in fact relied heavily on the knowledge and use of sled dogs. In 1911 they hauled the supplies for Norwegian explorers led by Roald Amundsen, who were the first people to reach the South Pole. But dogs have not been used in Antarctica since 1993 because the Antarctic treaty bans them (canine disease distemper was spreading to Antarctica’s seals).As for igloos-
Igloos are commonly associated with all Inuit, they were predominantly constructed by people of the Central Arctic. In Antarctica there are no native people only scientists. They have to learn how to build use igloos as shelters in case of an emergency. The training is called “Happy Camper” school and everybody who works in Antarctica has to attended the training.
Science

The main reason for the trip was to break the ship channel to McMurdo for the supply ships. In addition, there were several science projects onboard like, CO2 in the seawater, temperature, ice observation and animal observations etc. Read our journals to learn more.
 
Computers- PC's with big harddrives for the GPS maps, radar for navigation and a paper map, ruler and compass to calculate the waypoints. Ask me in class I show you on my aviation maps and GPS how it works.
 
Thank you and keep learning science,
Your teacher,
U. Kaden