/ 10 July 2008

A month of ice and snow

Moipone Academy will host an awareness campaign about research activities in Antarctica at Khayalothando Hall in Tembisa during July.

Antarctica month was celebrated during June and it is still International Polar Year, a large scientific programme that focuses on the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Joseph Taetsane, the organiser of the initiative from Moipone Academy, said the objective is to create awareness of South Africa’s research initiatives in Antarctica during Antarctica month.

He said it also wants to share the latest developments and information on the research with learners, students and the broader community so that there is a wider public understanding of science.

To encourage learners to take an interest in this field the academy invited professors, masters and PhD students from the University of Pretoria to give presentations.

Taetsane said the academics will serve as role models and encourage learners and students not only to take up postgraduate studies, but also to retain them in this field and enable them to give back to their communities. The workshops will take place as follows:

  • July 15, 9am to 10am: screen play at Zitikeni Secondary, Antarctica Wildlife
  • July 16, 9am to 10am: screen play at Inqaisivele Secondary, Antarctica Wildlife Adventure
  • July 16, 5.30pm to 7pm: Vungani Maboko – Student Life in Antarctica
  • July 22, 10am to 1pm: site visit to University of Pretoria – Antarctica exhibition
  • July 29, 9.30am to 11am: screen play at Thuto Ke Maatla Secondary, Antarctica Wildlife
  • July 30, 9.30am to 11am: screen play at Bokamoso Secondary, Antarctica Wildlife
  • July 30, 5.30pm to 7pm, Prof. Martha Bester on marine mammals

For more information contact Joseph Taetsane on 011 316 4540; fax 086 663 1645 or email: [email protected]

Facts and fiction

  • There is some controversy about who actually “discovered” the Antarctic continent. The Russian Admiral Thaddeus von Bellingshausen sighted part of the coastline of the continent on January 27 1820 without actually realising what he had seen. Three days later, on January 30, a small sailing ship chartered by the British Admiralty and under the command of Edward Bransfield sighted land at latitude 64 ° south. Today we know this to be the Antarctic Peninsula.
  • The first expedition to reach the South Pole was led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Members of the exbidition achieved their goal on December 14 1911 and returned safely to their base a few weeks later.
  • The first team to fly to the South Pole was led by Richard Byrd of the United States and the flight took place in November 1929. Byrd was also responsible for the development of two-way radio communication and tracked vehicles exploring the continent. The first person to fly across the continent was another American, Lincoln Ellsworth, in 1935. He covered about 3 700km during his flight.
  • The first woman to land on the Antarctic was a Mrs Mikkelsen, the wife of a Norwegian whaling captain, in February 1935. She went ashore at the Vestfold Hills on the east coast of the continent.
  • J J laGrange led the first South African Antarctic expedition, which left Cape Town in 1959 and reached the Fimbulisen ice-shelf early in 1960.

Sources: the departments of science and technology and environmental affairs and tourism