For Antarctica Day 2019 the National Committees organized the following events:
Antarctica Day - booths and storytelling at RBINS of Bruxelles
1 December, Bruxelles, Belgium
APECS Belgium was at the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences of Bruxelles all day to let people discover more about the white continent with plenty of activities. Visitors had the chance to get one of our newly released storybooks and to visit the Antarctic exhibition at the Museum!
See here the announcements: from APECS Belgium and from the museum.
APECS-FRANCE: Open webinar #2 : Matthieu Tordeur
5 December, Online
Online webinar with the French explorer Matthieu Tordeur. Youngest explorer to reach the South Pole without any assistance.
Conferences on International Antarctic Day and 60 years after the signing of the Antarctic Treaty
27 November, Montevideo, Uruguay
The conferences "History and context of the 60 years of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty" (Waldemar Fontes) and "Isotopic and geochemical characterization of Cryoconites, as a possible environmental monitor of atmospheric deposition in the cryosphere" (Mirel Cabrera and Marcos Tassano) were organized by APECS-Uruguay.
APECS Germany "Name this Photo" Contest
29 November, Online
APECS Germany called for a social media activity. You should caption the photos from our social media page. The best caption wan a prize!
#AntarcticaDay2019_UKPN media campaign
22 November, Online
As a part of the Antarctica day celebrations, the UK Polar Network launched #AntarcticaDay2019_UKPN media campaign with a series of historic overview posts, wildlife photos and insights from current fieldwork in Antarctica. The campaign ran on our website (https://polarnetwork.org), Instagram (@ukpolarnetwork), Twitter (@UKPolarNetwork) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ukpolarnetwork).
More information can be found here.
UKPN Antarctic Flags
1 December, 70 schools from different locations
To celebrate this milestone of peace in our civilisation, we in the UKPN organised an outreach project – the Antarctica Day Flags Initiative - with the aim to spread the word about this success story for world-wide collaboration and to hope its message and values inspires future generations.
This initiative was founded alongside the Foundation for the Good Governance of International Spaces (Our Spaces), a UK-based charity, as well as the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). The concept of the project is simple: we asked participating schools to create a flag for Antarctica (as it is without an official flag) which they believe symbolises this continent which isn't 'owned' by any particular country. The flags were then sent to us here at UKPN, who pair flags from schools with researchers and station staff that are heading down to Antarctica for the Austral Summer (November-January). The flags are then transported all the way to Antarctica with these “flag bearers”, and proof of travel with a certificate and photos of their journey will be sent to the schools upon the flag bearers’ return.
Alongside the flag fun and creativity, the schools incorporated aspects of Antarctica into a relevant lesson so that schoolchildren learn about the importance of Antarctica as a symbol of international cooperation through science, and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that encapsulated this belief into law. These themes were truly encapsulated in the flags we receive, and the abundant positive feedback from teachers as well as from the flag bearers assured us that our aims are being met. It is also obvious from the profusion of penguins featured on the flags (of all the animals drawn, they take first place) that the unique environment of this continent is especially inspiring to the flag makers.
Last year we sent over 250 flags to Antarctica from 53 schools covering Europe, North America and Asia. The 2019 cohort of flags are well underway and we are delighted that for the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty we have more schools than ever involved in in the initiative. Watch this space for more beautiful flags and more global connections between science, schools and Antarctica.
More information can be found here.
Antarctic stories for children
3 December, Christchurch, New Zealand
Members of APECS Oceanis did a reading of Antarctic stories to children at childcare and penguin origami craft.
Antarctic Flags
1 November, different cities in Brazil
Schools from all over the country could join by sending draws related to Antarctic theme from their students. The flags were sent to Antarctica (from Nov2019-Feb2020) so researchers will take photos with them and send back to the schools.
Social Media Interations
25 November, Online
We used the APECS-Brasil Instagram account to do intense interaction with the public during the whole week - including stories talking about Antarctic research, the stories to receive questions (and reply to all), stories to make a quiz, posting videos from different professionals currently working at the Brazilian Antarctic Station.
More information on this page.
APECS-Brasil in school
30 November, Porto Esperidião, Brazil
A researcher and APECS member represented us at the school and gave a talk (called 'Why should we study Earths' Poles?') to 60 children and some of the teachers at the school Escola Estadual 13 de Maio. After, the whole group planted 50 trees to symbolize their commitment of caring about climate.
Polar bloggers
2 December, Silveira Martins, Brazil
The event was held at the extension center of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), located in Silveira Martins/Brazil. The event was a partnership of UFSM with the Polar and Climate Center and National Institute of Science and Technology of the Cryosphere. The students who participated are from elementary school and the goal is to present some characteristics of Antarctica using social media such as Youtube and Instagram.
Polar Week in the Museum
2 December, Sofia, Bulgaria
Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, together with the National Museum of Natural History and of APECS - Bulgaria organized several events, including exhibitions, lectures, discussions, dedicated to the Antarctica Day.
Presentation on Antarctic Animals
25 November, Instanbul, Turkey
In order to highlight Antarctica and vulnerability of living creatures, we created a presentation regarding Antarctic animals. We organized 2 different events up to 120 children in two different schools. After talking about our presentation, we played Memory game on polar animals in both reminding the brief information on animals’ life style and having fun. At the end of the game, we gave penguins as a gift to the winners in terms of being another reminder to protect them.
More information can be found here.
Social awareness on 1st December World Antarctica Day
1 December, Instanbul, Turkey
In terms of global climate change and awareness on 1st of December World Antarctica Day, we conducted some outreach activities and posted in our social media accounts. We believe that such activities help taking attention of public and raise awareness to learn more about White Continent.