FAQs from Secondary Schools
The Arctic and Antarctic were the chosen themes for a week's summer school organised by the Bedford Children's University in 2001 and 2002 that attracted around 100 school children. This was the third topic that Bedford had used for its Children's University with the two preceding being devoted to Space Exploration and Astronomy. The event is sponsored by the Harper Trust whose aims are to support educational activities in Bedford.
There were four lessons a day. These included class-room talks, hands-on experiences, map making, story writing, a visit to the Scott Polar Research Institute, looking down microscopes at phytoplankton, meeting marines with Arctic Survival experience and having talks on the Antarctic given by a British Antarctic Survey scientist.
Part of the summer school was devoted to IT, exploring websites with polar connections, and corresponding directly with Antarctic support staff. Questions were sent to Antarctic research stations as well as British Antarctic Survey headquarters in Cambridge. The questions and replies for the last two years have been categorised under the following headings:
