Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/23/2010 - 10:57
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Oden Antarctic Expedition 2010

Hello Ann Marie! I guess you are in Antarctica right now. I am a 4th grader in Sauquoit New York, in Mrs.Waldeck's class. I had a few questions in my mind for you. I wonder if the time was different? Did you make any discoveries? We are following you in my class room so I wondered how many other people are on your team? Do you like it in Antarctica? Do you celebrate Christmas? If you guys do will you be having a party or something? I can't beleive that tomorrow is already Christmas Eve! Well I better get going now! Maybe during break I will pretend that I'm in Antactica and dig through the snow and see how deep it is and study the snowflakes. Well have lots of fun and I hop you can right back to me! Bye. From, Ally

Wed, 01/05/2011 - 14:48

Anne Marie Wotkyns

Hi Ally!
The Oden is in the Antarctic now - cruising through the Amundsen Sea, part of the Southern Ocean that surrounds the continent of Antarctica. **The** Antarctic is the area south of the Antarctic Circle (Latitude 66.5 South) and Antarctica is the actual land continent. We won't be in Antarctica until we actually dock at McMurdo Station,Antarctica on January 14. For now, we are in **the** Antarctic.
Right now, the ship is on Chilean time - that is 2 hours later than Eastern Standard Time. But soon we will be changing to New Zealand time, which I believe is 14 hours different than now!
Our Sea Ice team is recording data about sea ice and the depth of snow on the sea ice. Later, this data can be compared to data from previous years to see if the average ice thickness and snow depth is changing or remaining the same. Also, out team is exploring new ways to measure the snow and ice depth more accurately, which can help scientists all over the world that study in cold environments.
If you check my journal from Dec. 18, you will see the other 3 people on my team - there are 4 of us on the Sea Ice team - myself, Blake Weissling, Brent Stewart, and David Prado.
We are getting ready for a big Christmas Eve dinner and party. The Swedish people celebrate Christmas Eve similar to our Christmas Day. They just started decorating the ship and we have a Christmas tree in the lounge and one in the dining room. Today we made ornaments to hang on them. Last night we made gingerbread cookies and gingerbread houses. I'll be writing a journal and posting pictures of this soon. We also celebrated Santa Lucia Day (a Swedish tradition) on December 13th. More abut this coming soon in a journal. And we will be doing a gift exchange too - I'm looking forward to that!
I hope you get a chance to make some snow and ice observations of your own over your winter break. Try some experiments too - maybe you can make some new discoveries to share with us! Happy holidays!

Sat, 01/08/2011 - 05:40

Anonymous

Hi Anne Marie I appreciate you writing back to me. My break is overNow but I did get to do a few observations! I brought a magnifing
Glass out in the snow and I find this really
Cool snowflake it was like a skinny peice of snow conected
Too two normal snowflakes! It was really cool I wish I could send you
A picture! Well thanks and I appreciate you carving out time to
Write back to my class, my friend Lilly, and I.
From ally