ENTRY POINT

Antarctic Rescue Mission

A letter arrived for Year 5 requesting that a taskforce of experts, familiar with working in extreme weather conditions, needed to be sent out to an Antarctic weather station within the next few days. A team of scientists are trapped inside a weather station and supplies are running low!

The scientists have been stationed in Antarctica for several months monitoring the extreme weather and climate conditions. Prolonged temperatures of - 89 °C (−129 °F), snow blizzards and winds reaching speeds of 320 km/h (200

mph) have caused the formation of snow drifts, giant icebergs and frozen seas.

Team Antarctica is urgently needed! The scientists have very little food left and fuel is being used sparingly, it will run out by the end of the week. There are only a few days to prepare for this treacherous journey and the team must make sure they have the right clothing, footwear, equipment, tools, snow

vehicles, food, medication and expertise on board. They’ll need to work in groups to plan and coordinate the journey carefully. Anything could go wrong so one of the first things they will need to do is carry out a full risk assessment of the situation. The team will have to trek 5 kilometres through snow blizzards to reach the trapped scientists once they arrive in Antarctica!

The children worked in pairs to develop a rescue plan and strategies for survival in the extreme weather conditions. They needed to coordinate their work so that the overall rescue mission goes according to plan.