How the continent was formed and has changed over time - the rise of Gondwanaland; Antarctica's extremes of climate and weather: what it takes to do research in such an environment and the faces and personal stories of modern science: how helicopters, ice-breakers and chain-saws are "lab tools," and many dedicated people with perhaps unexpected jobs -- pilots, cooks, carpenters -- are "laboratory assistants," along with the Ph.D scientists with their telescopes, satellites and advanced telecommunications. Live interactive interconnects with students in Texas and Maryland.
December 15, 1994, 2:00 p.m. EST
As the continent has evolved, so have the life-forms which live here. The program goes fossil-hunting in the majestic Transantarctic Mountains, summoning up the days when this was tropical forest; studies Emperor penguins, close up and underwater; and looks at fish with organic antifreeze in their bodies! Live video from the Dry Valleys, a place more desiccated than the Gobi Desert, but where life is found inside rocks and deep in perpetually ice-covered lakes, we dive to see an underwater glacier. Live interactive interconnects with students in Honolulu, Hawaii and Maryland.
Live: January 10, 1995, 5:30 p.m. EST, Re-Feed: January 12, 1995 2:00 p.m. EST
Cut off from the rest of the planet every antarctic winter, America's Pole station is like a spaceship, testing the limits of human spirit and engineering; what's Christmas like at the South Pole? A 17-year old recent high school graduate from Chicago gives her impressions and repositions Earth's geograpical South Pole marker, live, during the program! The program also explains why astronomers have built some of the planet's most powerful telescopes at the Pole, studying the origins of the stars, galaxies and universe from what is literally the end of the Earth. Live interactive interconnects with students in Chicago, Illinois; Honolulu, Hawaii and Charlottesville, Virginia. Bill Kurtis, host of "The New Explorers," a co-production of WTTW and Kurtis Productions Ltd., anchors the Chicago interactive downlink.
January 19, 1995, 1:00 p.m. EST
Governed by international treaty, Antarctica is a place from which all weapons are banned, a place devoted to scientific research. What does Antarctica tell us about how men and women of all nations can cooperate for the common good? What do clues hidden in its huge sheets of ice reveal about past climates and teach us about how Earth's weather may change in the future? What can students do, linked by telecommunications, to help scientists gather data and educate themselves to build a better future for the planet? Live interactive interconnects with students in Barrow, Alaska and Maryland.
