In the following days, we heard from people around the world:
Brazil
The last IPY Day, on December 4th, was very special in Rio Claro, SP, Brazil!
Cubs and Scouts of the Grupo Escoteiro Santa Cruz (Rio Claro, SP) joined teacher Miriam Hebling Almeida and students Isabela Horta and Thaynara Zaia (Colégio Puríssimo Coração de Maria) to celebrate another IPY Day and discuss how life on Earth is already being affected by global warming. They also did one of the classroom activities, Penguin Family Reunion, available from the IPY educators pages.
Groupo Escoteiro Santa Cruz is happy to join IPY and people all over the world in their efforts to increase environmental awareness.
India
Sh. Rasik Ravindra, Director NCAOR, addressing the students on the occasion of the International Polar Day at Vasco-da-GamaNational Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research at Vasco-da-Gama, Goa, India, which is the nodal agency for Indian chapter of the IPY, also celebrated this event by holding movies, lectures & elocution contest for school children of Goa. The topic for the contest was “Effect of Global Warming on the Polar Regions” in which students participated very enthusiastically. The first three winners of the elocution contest were given prizes & certificates to encourage them for participating in such activities. Around 150 students from different schools participated in these events that left them with very interesting information regarding Antarctica & Arctic. A “virtual weather balloon” showing the local weather condition & information on this function was also launched. This Polar Day was also celebrated in parallel at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-India) at New Delhi with lectures & other competitions.
Students gathered at NCAOR, Goa for celebrating the International Polar DayUnited Kingdom
Gifted and talented students from all around Cambridge gathered at the Scott Polar Research Institute to join the Europe/ Asia live event. In their feedback afterwards it was clear that they especially enjoyed having direct interaction with researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic by text-chat. This was supported by teacher Sophie Evans, from Arbury Primary School, who had set her students up two per terminal.. and they were busy asking questions 20 minutes before the event even officially started:
Extract from text chat during "set-up". The excited banter continued for the next two hours!
zx zx: hey there.. i'm Nihal from the library of Alexandria [Egypt] .. i just wanna know if you're testing the audio because it's not very clear
Nicola Munro: Hi Nihal, yes we are just testing at the moment - Rhian will test the audio shortly! great you're on line!
Anton Feun: Greetings from Cape Town - Anton
Ags Fryckowska to Nicola Munro: hello from Halley! [Antarctica]
Nicola Munro: Hi Ags! Just testing here!!
Nicola Munro to Rhian Salmon: Sounds Good Rhian from in here.
Mark Drinkwater: What's the temperature
Ags:?
Rhian Salmon to Nicola Munro: thanks!
Michael Burton to All Presenters: I am talking??
student1: hello is it cold out there
student 2: where do you go to the toilet
student 3: hi how cold is it
Mark Drinkwater: It feels the same here in Holland too today!
Ags Fryckowska: it's -10degC this morning
student 2: that is cold
Mark Drinkwater: Snowed a lot in northern england the last days...
Ags Fryckowska: not too cold as we are used to it
student 3: do you were those big coats
student 2: are the shoes you wear big?
Ags Fryckowska: in the winter when it is -30 we will wear big clothes and boots
Mark Drinkwater: Got some good images of the Antarctic peninsula the last week.
student 5: Hello.How big are polar bears?
student 1: hi ags what is the tempreture
Helen Atkinson: michael very quiet
student 4: How deep has the deepest glacier you've ever went in been.
Ags Fryckowska: we have no polar bears in the antarctic
Mark Drinkwater: The Wilkins Ice shelf appears to be about to break up.
Ags Fryckowska: oh the images would be great to see
student 1: hi mark
Michael Burton: Full of interference there?
student 4: has anyone ever froze to deth
Helen Atkinson: testing
The live event would not have been possible without the generosity of Liz Murphy Global Media in providing the software, set-up, and facilitation.
Later in the day, Polartrec Live From IPY hosted the second event that connected students across the Americas with researchers around the world, including South Pole Station. This second event was targetted at older students and included some excellent questions from a class in Brazil, and also an undergraduate student in Iran studying astronomy.
Elizabeth Eubanks' 6th grade students from St. Mark's Catholic School in Boynton Beach Florida, participating in the Polartrec Live EventIn the media
On December 2nd, Radio Romania hosted a 45 live Science talk show (called "Radio planet - The World we Will Live In") dedicated to the IPY and to the 4th of December celebration.
The show included Teodor Negoita, Mihaela Cotta, from the Romanian Arctic Research Institute, and Roxana Bojariu from the National Weather Administration, a specialist on polar issues and also a scientist involved in elaborating the IPCC's reports.
In addition, previously recorded interviews with Dr. David Carlson and Dr. Rhian Salmon from the IPY International Orogramme Office were on air in full.
A journalist from the German press in Geneva (DPA) also interviewed WMO expert Geir Braathen, stimulating articles in ThaiIndian News and Earth Times:
ThaiIndian News - 4/12/08
Earth Times - 03/12/08