24 April 2015 Ohio Road Trip

Journal

Ohio or Bust- Road Trip

Even though I returned from Antarctica back in December, I have been busy! So what have I been up to?

Before I left for Antarctica, I went to visit different schools to talk to students about what the team would be doing in Antarctica. Now that I am back, I have continued these school visits to share highlights from the team’s research in Antarctica with the students who followed our journey. Usually the schools I visit are local schools, but Patrick, museum’s project mascot, and I decided to take a special road trip! This time instead of heading south towards Antarctica, we headed north- to Ohio.

Map of our road trip- Memphis, TN, to Columbus, OH. Image credit: Google Maps — Memphis,TN to Columbus, OH

Day 1:

The first stop on the trip was at Hilliard Horizon Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio. These students followed the journey virtually and participated in the Get Fit and Postcards from the Pole challenges.

Students listening to the presentation. Photo courtesy of Hilliard Horizon Elementary School. — Presentation at Hilliard Horizon Elementary School

Hilliard Horizon Elementary school was a great first stop on the trip. The students and I had a lot of fun learning about the expedition and practicing their skills at weighing Weddell seals.

Students learning how to weigh a Weddell seal. Photo courtesy of Hilliard Horizon Elementary School. — Students practicing weighing a Weddell seal.

Day 2:

Day 2 was an action packed day with visits to two schools.

The first stop was at Ridgewood Elementary School in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. Patrick and I got a warm welcome from all of the students we were able to visit. But at Ridgewood Elementary we got a special thank you from the students- videos the students made about what they learned about Antarctica and Weddell seals.

Check out this video of the students sharing what they learned.

These were only a couple of videos the students created but they all were awesome. Great job Ridgewood Elementary!

The final stop we made was at Weaver Middle School. While I have spent a lot of time sharing my experiences in Antarctica and what I did- the students at Weaver Middle School were eager to share with me some of the things they did during the expedition. One of the things they did was make their own Weddell seal mascot!