Classroom Antarctica takes to the skies
In February a group of school kids got a lesson in physics while experiencing the stunning beauty of a flyover of Antactica.
‘Classroom Antarctica’ is an annual event organised by retired academic administrator David Dodd and supported by the Laby Foundation. It sends University of Melbourne students and physicists on a chartered Qantas jet fly-over of Antarctica, where they run demonstrations for high school students and the general public.
The University of Melbourne’s Jacinta Den Besten, and PhD students Yuxiang Qin and Danni Holmes led this year’s trip. Demos included measuring the vertical direction of the Earth's magnetic field with a magnetometer and a Dip Circle from the School of Physics Museum, and measuring radiation with a muon detector and a Geiger counter.
The Qantas pilot, Captain Martin Buddery, an alumnus of the University of Melbourne, joined in some of the activities.
Check out some of the photos and videos collected on the trip below.
There will be a colloquium at 12pm, 27 March in the Medley Theatre, Redmond Barry Building where the team will talk about the trip and present the data they collected.