The Antarctica Day 2016 was held by the APECS Swiss National Committee on the 1st and 2nd of December. One early career scientist organized an event at the WSL institute in Zurich and another one in a primary school in Neuchâtel.
Antarctica Day @ WSL:
WSL is a federal research institute and 300 people are working there. On the 1st of December, two presentations were organized for the whole WSL. The first presentation was made by Konrad Steffen on the effect of climate change in Antarctica and future politic action by Switzerland in Polar regions. The second talk was held by Julia Schmale, from the Paul Scherrer Institute about her project on the oncoming Antarctica Circumpolar Expedition. The topic was related to atmospheric components in the Southern hemisphere.
In total, over 60 people took part of this event which is surprising as very few polar scientists are working in this institute. This showed the overall interest from many people for Antarctica and we had a very good feedback.
Antarctica Day in a primary school:
Four classes of a primary school took part of the Antarctica day. In the morning, a power point resuming the climate, geography, history and fauna was presented by the professors. The power point was prepared by the APECS members beforehand.
In the afternoon, an APECS member came and could answer all remaining questions about the continent, as well as present the scientific work done down south.
The questions were on very different topics and lasted over two hours. The APECS member also brought with her a “working suit” used by the scientists to work in very cold conditions. The students could try it on and realized how warm and heavy it is.
The week preceding the Antarctica day, the children had the exercise to draw an Antarctica flag. These flags are already on their way to Antarctica, with an APECS mentor (Julia Schmale) that will make a circumpolar expedition around Antarctica. She will display the drawings on the ship.
This Antarctica Day was a real success in school and the children showed a lot of interest and curiosity about this continent. The feedback from the professors and parents was very positive!
