APECS Oceania (Hobart branch) and the local Young Antarctic Scientists have teamed up to organise a special Antarctica Day event for a class of Grade 4 students at Calvin Christian College in Kingston, who are taught by Chris McMinn, Jono Laning and Christina Flinn. The Young Antarctic Scientists are a group of mainly PhD students from the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. They are led by Guy Williams and are enthusiastic about the outreach of the research being undertaken at these institutes.

The students of Calvin Christian College have been busy creating flags that represent Antarctica, using what they have learnt from the Young Antarctic Scientists, who have previously visited the class this year. As part of the Antarctica Day activities the students will be presenting their Antarctica Flags to Eva Cougnon. Eva is a PhD student at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart and will be taking the flags with her when she travels on board the Aurora Australis to Antarctica in early December. Eva will photograph the flags on their journey to the Antarctic continent and will send this image along with a certificate back to the class so they can see just how far their artwork has traveled.

Antarctica Day is a great outreach opportunity for APECS Oceania, and though this is the first time the Antarctic Flags activity has been run locally we are looking forward to getting more schools involved next year and establishing a stronger link between local students and the researchers who study and work in Antarctica.

For other information on similar Antarctica Day events please check out OurSpaces