Use all stages of the water cycle to list water in all its forms. How do living things use water? What state must it be in? Antarctica is an ice desert. What limitations does this present for living things.?

Learning outcome:

Boil a pot of water to change liquid water to a water vapour. Use a cold plate to demonstrate condensation.
Place large blocks of ice (icebergs) in a bucket. Note displacement. What percentage of ice is above/below the water? Time and record changes from solid to liquid.
Melt iceblocks in hands for a demonstration of transference of body heat.
Place an iceblock in a glass jar of water. Measure the temperature. Test every ten minutes using different insulators e.g. foil, knitted wool, cotton fabric, brown paper, polystyrene, plastic.
Graph the results.
Next activity in groups: Design a container to hold an ice cube frozen for the longest period.

Focus: Link changes in motion with the application of force.

Learning outcome:

Read a vivid account of Robert Scott's race with Amundsen to be the first to reach the South Pole in January, 1912. Wild Antarctic storms defeated his party.

Learning outcome:

Find out about the Antarctic crevasses, glaciers and icebergs.

Focus: Relationship between weather and the environment. (Casey Base, located due south of Perth, is a strategic site for recording and studying the Antarctic weather patterns that drive our weather here in Australia.)

Learning outcome:

What elements caused Antarctica to become such an inhospitable place? What is an ice desert? Ice covers 98% of the continent. The annual precipitation of Antarctica is less than 2 inches. Winds can reach 150 m.p.h.

Learning outcome:

Contrast the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. Compare the hours of daylight in Antarctica with those of other places on the globe. For six months Antarctica is a dark and gloomy place.

Focus: Mapping relationship in a habitat.

Learning outcome:

Use the CD Rom What's for Dinner Thank you! about the food web in Antarctica.
Create labelled diagrams of food chains or food webs.

Learning outcome:

• Wings have adapted as flippers and webbed feet make for excellent swimming and diving.
• The streamlined body allows a penguin to travel very fast through water and to rise nearly two metres onto the ice.
• Short, dense, waterproof feathers and layers of fat provided protection from the icy conditions.
• Black and white colouring is a helpful defence against predators, such as the leopard seal and killer whale. i.e From above, the black back of a penguin is difficult to see in the dark ocean. From below, the white belly is camouflage against the white sky.
• Interesting fact: the father emperor penguin produces a milk-like substance in his crop (throat) to feed the newly hatched penguin.

Classify the animals of the Antarctic as vertebrate/invertebrate, mammals/birds/fish. Is the habitat land, sea or air?

What am I?
Peg a card with a picture or word of an Antarctic creature to the back of children's collars. Children must ask each other questions which require a yes or no answer until they discover what they are.

Learning outcome:

Another environmental game is to have children prepare information cards with statements such as : "I have two legs", "I have a backbone", "Fur covers my body", "I eat ...", etc.
Distribute one card to each child in the class. Children then form groups to make an animal.