The BELARE 10 team welcomes a few new members, while an electronics teacher prepares for his first trip to Antarctica, thanks to his students!
A few more helping hands
Less than a week has passed since the first team arrived at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station, and already the BELARE team has grown. On Thursday morning, everyone welcomed two new members: Julien Lecomte and Nicolas Degand.
Julien is a veteran of the two seasons (2007-08 and 2008-09) during which the station was first constructed. He’s happy to be back in Antarctica to see how the station is holding up against the elements. During the 2014-15 season, Julien will be involved in constructing the new geomagnetic observatory near the station for the GEOMAG project.
Nicolas is a machine operator who's experiencing Antarctica for the first time (it's always nice to introduce a newcomer to wonders of the planet's southernmost continent!). As a profesisonal machine operator, Nicolas will handle the Komatsu crane during construction operations, in particular during the construction of the geomagnetic observatory.
Sending your teacher to Antarctica?
During your school days, did you ever wish you could send your teacher to Antarctica? Thanks to the Polar Quest project, a high school class from Ans, Belgium has managed to do just that!
Roger Radoux, an electronics teacher at the Athénée royal d’Ans, is preparing to leave for Antarctica on November 15th thanks to the hard work of his students. His class competed in and won the second Polar Quest contest, which was organized by the International Polar Foundation and funded by Wallonia and the Brussels Capital Region.
Set up to follow the same spirit as the Princess Elisabeth station - which was designed to run entirely on renewable wind and solar energy and manage the energy produced very efficiently thanks to its smart micro grid - Polar Quest is a contest in which students from different high schools around Belgium are asked to come up with innovative ways to manage energy use more efficiently in their schools.
This year, for the contest’s second edition, five schools made it through the pre-selection process to compete at the Polar Quest final on May 14, 2014. A jury of experts gave top prize to the energy-saving project devised by an electronics class from the Athénée royal d’Ans. Thanks to their efforts, their teacher, Roger Radoux, will spend several weeks in Antarctica learning about how the Princess Elisabeth station works, as well as get a feel of what daily life in Antarctica is like.
During his time at the Princess Elisabeth, Roger will be giving lessons to his students via Skype. Students and teachers from everywhere are encouraged to visit his blog to follow his activities. You can even ask him questions!
The Polar Quest project is a very unique educational opportunity for Belgian students. We wish Roger all the best as he takes his first journey to Antarctica!
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