NEWS

Junior Polar Traveller website launched

The Junior Polar Traveller website was designed as a teaching aid, but also of general interest to young people. The website aims to inform young people about global warming, Antarctica and the expedition itself. Andrew Regan explains: ‘When we thought about what benefit we could add to the expedition, we thought – let’s take it to the biggest audience we possibly can – let’s take it to the schools.

‘Education is so important,’ he adds, ‘Because people who are in schools right now – from kindergarten through to sixth form – will be copping for a lot more of the problems than we are as adults. The way in which young people are taught to think about global warming and Antarctica and climate change can condition them to be sensitive rather than bombastic towards the planet.’

The pivotal point of the youth site will be the expedition, with its concept vehicles and the struggle against the harsh conditions. ‘To get the kids’ interest in any subject - if it’s not a tangible, physical thing, it has to be a visual or a noise thing,’ says Regan. ‘So the trip itself needs to be of interest to them. If the vehicle looks like a ‘James Bond’ vehicle, well that’s a hook to get them in. If we can get that vehicle across Antarctica in the harshest conditions in the world, then we can create interest.’

To add to the appeal to school-age kids, Andrew Regan’s three teenage sons will be heading to Antarctica and will be blogging about their experience at base camp, while the expedition team will be using satellite communication to give live feeds about their progress across one of the most inaccessible places on earth.

The Moon-Regan team will be carrying out school science experiments during their journey across the continent: ‘Ice samples, weather balloons – the idea was always to have a physical experiment that we can piece to camera and blog around – almost live. So we need to time the experiments so they can be live when kids are in the classroom,’ says Andrew.

The site has been designed to appeal to a broad range of ages - with its ‘South Park’esque characters and irreverent content style, it’s likely to be a welcome addition to the normal classroom educational aids.