4 March 2012 Back to Reality

Jumping into Teaching

I finally arrived back to Austin on the evening of January 6th. After a lovely weekend with my fiance, I returned to the classroom eager to see my students and colleagues again. I shared my stories and adventures with my students, although they were already familiar with them thanks to the online journals they read and our skype sessions.

Using Antarctica in my lessons

When I returned to teach, we had just started a unit on day, night and seasons. My experiences from Antarctica were perfect examples of how the tilt of the Earth affects daylight hours. I showed students pictures of me when it was midnight, but the sun was still high in the sky. Also, I explained how we could prove that the Earth was tilted by doing a little math. Bob and Andy had the idea of calculating the Earth’s tilt by measuring my height and my shadow while at the South Pole at winter solstice. With the help of AGO groom team member, James, we were able to make a little video depicting this.

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Students teach day/night and seasons too!

My video experience in Antarctica inspired me to ask my students to make videos explaining day, night and seasons too! One student group even made a rap about seasons that included a reference to my trip to Antarctica:

Day and night are caused by the Earth’s rotation. Ms. Brown came back from McMurdo Station!

It seems like my experience in Antarctica has made quite an impression on my students!