Level 2 Biology Antarctic Centre Trip

Level 2 Biology Antarctic Centre Trip

On 23 August a group of 34 Level 2 Biologists headed off to the Antarctic Centre for the day. 

This was the first time we had done this trip in relation to an Achievement Standard we are covering. The students are looking into extreme environments and the adaptations organisms who live in Antarctica have to help them survive this extreme environment. It is the windiest, driest and coldest place on earth! 

We had a very valuable presentation about penguins, in particular the Emperor penguin, and the amazing adaptations it has. Did you know that with all their adaptations to keep warm, penguins can actually overheat?! As a result they have adaptations to deal with that too. 

 We got to meet and greet the huskies and their handler. This was a real hit. There were several murmurings of taking one or two home with us. We heard about husky adaptations too. 

An Antarctic storm was then experienced with the wind climbing to over 50km/ hour and the temperature dropping to -18 degrees celsius. 

We then moved on to see the penguins. These penguins all have a story and are there as they were injured and needed to be looked after. 

It was a very informative day and we would like to thank the Antarctic Centre for what they provided us with. The students are now well-equipped to get on with writing their reports.