Launch a virtual balloon to show your participation in this International Polar Day: Changing Earth.

If you have difficulty launching your balloon, email your name, location (latitude, longitude or town, country), and IPY message to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It may be 24 hours, however, before your balloon appears.

To see your your balloon fly immediately, follow these simple steps:

1. Sign in to Tagzania
2. Select "Post" (top right), then "Point"
3. Find your location by clicking 'Go directly to the map'
4. Add the tag ipy2008changingearth
5. Fill in your other details: name, description, photos, links....
6. See your balloon appear on the Changing EarClickth Virtual Balloon Launch Map.

Click on the balloons to see the pop-up text and pictures. Here is a preview:

IPY 2008: International Polar Day: Changing Earth - activities around the world

The map is dynamically updated. As soon as a new location is tagged with "ipy2008changingearth", it will show up the next time it is refreshed. Try adding yours, and then refreshing this page. (Only the 200 most recent are shown, but all are listed.)

You can embed the map into any web page by creating a snippet of HTML code to copy and paste using this simple tool.

Here are some suggestions for bringing Changing Earth into the Classroom.

If you'd like to keep in touch with future activities, please join the IPY Teachers Discussion Group.


For more in-depth directions, please read below:

March 12th, 2008 is Changing Earth Day, a quarterly International Polar Day that students from around the world are marking by conducting experiments. To show that you've taken part in an activity on this International Polar Day, launch a virtual balloon by following the simple instructions below. You can visit the map showing everyone's balloons on this website, or you can embed the map on your own website.

Instructions for adding your own marker on the map:

Step 1: Get a free account with Tagzania. (If you haven't already)

Tagzania is a free location-tagging service. Once you have an account, you can mark locations on Google Maps and describe them, linking them to photos or web pages.

Register here. For your full name, you can use your school name and class. You don't need to submit an email address if you don't want to.

Step 2: Mark a location.

Log in and click on "post" in the top right-hand corned of the page. Then click on "Point".

First, find the location you want to mark on the map. You can search for your town or go directly to the map. Navigating the map is very simple