The fragile and fascinating Arctic environment is the setting for a unique education programme, XL Catlin Arctic Live, which runs until Friday 18th March with live lessons from the UK Arctic Research Station on Svalbard to schools across the world.
The mission is to bring this remote ecosystem to life for students using the latest communications technology. Students can live chat via video link with the expedition team, view virtual reality video or 360 degree photospheres of Arctic research from the comfort of their classroom and back all this up with a swathe of resources created in collaboration with teachers, explorers and scientists.
Arctic Live is the brainchild of teacher turned expedition educator, Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop. “When I was trying to teach about these amazing places in the classroom, I realised that traditional methods simply weren’t cutting it. The future of the Arctic is too important to leave to aging textbooks or a few slides,” he explains.
Arctic Live forms part of XL Catlin’s Oceans Education programme which is focused on increasing ocean literacy around the world. It is a collaboration between XL Catlin, Digital Explorer the British Antarctic Survey, who operate the UK Arctic Research Station, and Skype in the classroom.
To find out more go to http://oceans.digitalexplorer.com/events/arctic-live-2016
