Today we heard the story of the DARING expedition to the Antarctic and the South Pole. We were introduced to Mr. Robert Scott from Britain, and Mr. Roald Amundsen from Norway. These two explorers represented their countries in a "race" to be the first to reach the South Pole.
We imagined how incredibly difficult it would've been…a leaky boat, losing half their food supply overboard, sled dogs freezing to death, frostbite, snow blindness, battling blizzards every day and temperatures as low as -67. It took four months of walking just to get there, and another four months to walk back. The Scott team lost the race by only 33 days!
We decided that even though the British explorers were not the fastest, we consider them winners because they dared to go somewhere new, learned along the way, and they took time during their trek to draw maps, document native species and bring back fossils to the Royal Geographic Society.
Also-we agreed that the next time we were visiting the Antarctic that we would stop by the "Discovery Hut" and see a completely preserved base camp that still has their beds, clothing and food exactly as it was the day they left it 100+ years ago.
Next we played a board game. We divided into two groups: Norway and Britain. As we moved along the game board, players who got snow blindness had to wear a blindfold until their next turn. A player who developed scurvy had to eat an orange wedge. If your sled dog died, you must howl (sadly) like a husky. If you were the victim of frostbite, then a scarf and gloves must be worn, of course! The kids had a great time "racing" to the South Pole - as it turns out, even with a board game, team Norway made it there first.
Sent from Windows Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment