At Home >>

Danger! Melting Ice is a great way to help young people understand the reasons for the Arctic ice melting.

The Guidance Notes take us through the various ways that the primary toolkit presentation can be used. The PowerPoint presentation should be used alongside the Guidance Notes and is integral to the resource. It is broken up with short video clips and images that allow for plenty of discussion.

Especially useful for families is Worksheet two in the Guidance Notes, which encourages young people to work independently. It uses the information in the presentation to find the Arctic region on a map and to follow the route that the team took in 2009.

The slides, in conjunction with the images, put into context just how large an undertaking the Arctic Survey was and allows young people to explore their own feelings on the issue of global warming.

To help with this topic, there are video clips embedded in the presentation (downloadable from the Resources Gallery). Most useful for families will be video five. This talks young people through a typical day for both the explorers and those “back home” in the London Operational Headquarters.

In video three, Pen Hadow explains what it feels like to stand on the sea ice. This leads nicely into an activity that encourages young people to imagine what the world would be like if there was no ice. Video three places the Catlin Arctic Survey into context.

Worksheet three encourages young people at home to find out at first hand what happens when water freezes into ice and then melts – a perfect holiday activity!

The entire resource is a good companion for The Story, putting more of a scientific slant on the expedition without losing the ‘fun’ aspect of the learning.

The Citizenship section lends itself particularly well to family learning. There is the opportunity for children to write interview questions for those children who live near the Arctic and ask them about their own experiences. Worksheet one gives further guidance on this and episode three of The Story introduces the idea of people living in lands that are different to our own.

At School >>

Aimed at primary school children, there is still potential for this presentation and the accompanying resources to be used in secondary schools.

A truly cross-curricular resource, Danger! Melting Ice incorporates elements from Science, Maths, Geography, Citizenship, English and Drama.

The PowerPoint presentation is complemented by the accompanying Guidance Notes and is designed to be shown on an interactive whiteboard. It can therefore be manipulated to suit your individual classroom needs.

Split into three basic strands, each strand is available as a standalone lesson or as part of a longer scheme of work.

The Geography-Where is the Arctic Ocean? unit is a good way to get young people used to using maps and following instructions to complete worksheets.

The Science element of ice freezing and melting is fully interactive and includes a practical session for exploration through the senses that includes questions such as:

‘What can you hear when you stand on the ice?’ ‘What can you smell – is it the cold, or the salt which has come out of the sea ice?’ ‘What do you think it tastes like?’

The Citizenship section is based around the topics of teamwork and courage, and complements The Story. The section lends itself to the idea of drama and small group work.

The PowerPoint runs throughout the accompanying resources and is an ideal starter to the individual lessons whilst the images themselves are good stimulation starters.