Antarctic Skype II

Today was Skype #2 with our Antarctic researcher, Jean Pennycook.  Again, we brainstormed for questions beforehand and practiced speaking into the microphone.  We even had a gallery of guests for this visit (more on that later).

This time when we connected we heard the sweet chirping of baby chicks, which are almost a month old now.  They began hatching December 9^th, the day after our last Skype with Jean. 

As we chatted with Jean, the penguins began crowding around her laptop and she told us that penguins are very curious creatures and were actually responding to the sound of our voices!  I can hardly wrap my brain around the fact that the voices of my North Dakota first graders caused a stir in a penguin colony near the South Pole.  Incredible and mind-blowing.

She also told us the penguins we named, Blackie and Snowy, were occupying Nest #1 and they had two chicks.  The mom, Snowy, is away from the nest right now getting food and they are waiting for her return.  After our visit I went to the website and we saw pictures of “our” penguins along with script crediting our class with the names.  We’re famous!  You can see for yourself at the following link.  Scroll down the page to Nest #1 to see pictures and our name mentioned.

http://www.penguinscience.com/education/royds_nestcheck.php

Nest #1 daily progress:
http://www.penguinscience.com/education/nest_1.php

Now about that special guest…

In the hallway one day not too long ago, the school maintenance man, Harry, stopped me and told me he had heard about our previous video chat.  Then he knocked my socks off when he told me he had been to Antarctic THIRTEEN TIMES!  Wait… WHAT?!

Turns out he used to work for the National Science Foundation and traveled doing construction for their projects.  He told Jean today that he helped build the lab at McMurdo Station.  She was amazed and thanked him for helping build the very facility she uses during her research time there.  Harry grinned from ear to ear.  We cheered and called him our hero.  It was a priceless moment.  He is planning to bring boxes of artifacts to school in a couple of weeks and do a “Show and Share” with the Darlings.  We can’t wait.  I think Harry’s pretty jazzed too.

What a day. 

To hear the giggles of my landlocked prairie children as they watched the antics of those entertaining, noisy, mischievious birds is icing on my middle-aged, quasi-hippie cake. 

A note about the video:  It is lengthy (12 min.) and the first couple of minutes are fraught with technical troubles.  You might want to fast forward to about 1:20 minutes to avoid all of that. Also, due to the video camera angle, the screen appears to be washed out, but our picture was crystal clear and breathtakingly beautiful.