The main objective of the weekend was to emphasize the importance of the polar regions, and to showcase the various Portuguese science and education outreach activities currently underway. The weekend proved to be a wonderful opportunity for the wider public to get to know the Portuguese polar science community...

The educational programme LATITUDE60! organized one of the biggest events of the International Polar Year in Portugal on on the 29 June 2007: the national contest “discovering the Polar Regions!” More than 600 children and nearly 50 schools were present at the Lisbon event. At present, LATITUDE60! is a leading educational program with IPY, with more than 170 schools involved, more than 300 teachers and thousands of students from all over Portugal (including the Azores and Madeira) involved. The contest had 6 categories: scientific essay, polar writer, website, audiovisual, art and “build an igloo”, and was open to children of all ages, from kindergarten to university level. More than 500 submissions were received nationally and more than 70 received aw...

I thought I was the first Portuguese to study Wandering albatrosses but I was five hundred years too late. When fifteenth-century Portuguese sailors first ventured down the coast of Africa, they encountered large black and white birds with stout bodies, which they called alcatraz, the Portuguese word for large seabirds; English sailors later corrupted alcatraz to albatross. I was studying aspects of their diet and feeding behaviour in ways that could not be done five hundred years ago, information which may help save them from extinction. That made me feel better... Read more here This is an essay...

LATITUDE60! is the Portuguese Program for education during the International Polar Year. It is directed to all levels of education to reach every age group, from early childhood to adulthood. The program was launched at the Geographical Society of Lisbon on the 5 July 2006 but various presentations of the program will be carried out through the country, including Azores Islands until October 2006. The main objectives of this program is to educate all generations about the polar regions, provide examples of the high quality science the Portuguese has been carrying out in collaboration with other countries and engage young students to polar research. A collaboration with associations caring...