Students on Ice Foundation (also known as SOI) is a Canadian charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for international high school and university students. Its mandate is to provide youth, educators and scientists from around the world with learning and teaching opportunities in the polar regions, with the goal of fostering an understanding of, and commitment to building a more sustainable future.
Students on Ice (SOI) was founded in 2000 by Geoff Green, a Canadian explorer and educator. Before founding the organization, Green had led numerous expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica, and other destinations around the world. Believing that expeditions to the polar regions had the power to inspire and transform, he decided to create an organization aimed specifically at secondary school students that would provide them with learning opportunities in circumpolar regions. The objective of a Students on Ice expedition is to inspire and challenge youth at a critical time in their lives to think and act positively and proactively as global citizens. SOI creates attachments between the world and the young citizens who inhabit it by putting them physically in contact with issues relating to the planet's well-being. This concept is supported by the work of educational researchers such as David Sobel, David A. Gruenewald, and Gregory Smith, who argue that place-based learning or place-conscious learning
introduces children and youth to the skills and dispositions needed to regenerate and sustain communities. It achieves this end by drawing on local phenomena as the source of at least a share of children’s learning experiences, helping them to understand the processes that underlie the health of natural and social systems essential to human welfare.[1]
The first SOI expeditions were to Antarctica in 2000 and the Arctic in 2001. As of 2012, twenty-five polar expeditions had been completed including two expeditions to Antarctica for university students. More than 2,000 high school and university students, teachers, and experts from fifty-three countries have participated on SOI expeditions. The Students on Ice slogan "Protect the poles, protect the planet" was adopted in 2008.. In June 2012, a delegation of SOI alumni attended the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where they addressed world leaders and tabled a recommendation paper emphasizing the need for long-term polar sustainability. The alumni delegation was also represented at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar.
Operations
Students on Ice is currently based in Gatineau, Quebec. It conducts two ship-based journeys annually: typically one to the Eastern Canadian Arctic and western coast of Greenland (and occasionally Iceland); and the other to southern South America, the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding Southern Ocean. Expeditions typically involve 100 international students, aged 14 and up. The students travel with a team of staff and educators including scientists, historians, artists, elders, explorers, polar experts and others. SOI also offers a biennial expedition offering university-level course credits for undergraduate and graduate students through a program of Zodiac boat excursions and ship-board presentations and research activities in partnership with several international universities and educational institutions. Additionally, SOI has led occasional Arctic floe edge expeditions (to the region where the frozen Arctic Ocean meets the open ocean) during which students travel by snowmobile and qamutiq (komatik) across the sea ice. SOI also organized a Gulf of St. Lawrence research trip with whale expert Richard Sears and Mingan Island Cetacean Study biologists to observe and survey the endangered blue whale.
Founder, Geoff Green
Geoff Green is the founder and executive director of Students on Ice Expeditions, and President of the Students on Ice Foundation and the Polar Education Foundation. He has been leading polar expeditions for more than two decades. In 2012, he was appointed to the Order of Canada in recognition of "his contributions as an environmental educator and explorer, notably his commitment to conservation issues in the Arctic and Antarctic."[2] He was recognized as one of 25 Transformational Canadians in 2010[3] by The Globe and Mail, the CTV Television Network and La Presse; one of Canada's ‘Top 40 under 40’[4] and as Outpost Magazine's ‘Top 5 Canadian Explorers’ to watch. Geoff received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by the U.S. Congress in 2005 for his work with youth and the environment and a Citation of Merit for outstanding feats of exploration and service from the Explorers Club, New York City. His Inuktitut name, bestowed upon him by the Commissioner of Nunavut in 2010, is “Pitsiulak.”
Green is a veteran expedition leader of over one-hundred Antarctic and Arctic expeditions. He is the first person to have water-skied in both polar regions, has been through the Northwest Passage three times, and has retraced parts of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famed Endurance journey six times. This included a 1998 expedition with descendants of Shackleton's crew. He is a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a board member for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, the Mingan Island Cetacean Study, the Arctic Circle Club, and the Canadian National Committee for the International Polar Year 2007–2008.[5] He is also the national ambassador for the Jardin des Glaciers project[6] in Baie Comeau, Quebec, and the national spokesperson for Brita's Filter for Good campaign.[7] Green has addressed schools, conferences, and corporate and special events around the world. He has been a guest speaker at the Royal Geographical Society in London, England, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Green and SOI expeditions have been featured in international media, and in numerous documentaries and television programs.
Antarctic Youth Expeditions
Students on Ice organizes annual ship-based journeys to southern South America, the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding Southern Ocean during the Austral summer when the weather conditions are suitable. It is at this time of year that the surrounding sea ice has melted sufficiently to allow access to Antarctic waters, which are abundant with millions of penguins, seals, seabirds and whales. During this season, Antarctica is home to the greatest concentration of wildlife on Earth.
On board activities for students include presentations, seminars and other hands-on activities focused on topics including the history, geography, and the flora and fauna of the Antarctic. Students have the opportunity to assist international scientists who are conducting on-going research projects and fieldwork. During forum sessions, students examine the complex environmental, geopolitical and economical issues facing Antarctica, while simultaneously exploring solutions and policy alternatives to the challenges facing the Antarctic and the planet. Students make shore landings on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in Zodiac boats operated by qualified guides. They also visit islands noted for their abundant penguin populations. Students on Ice is a member of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), a member organisation founded in 1991 to advocate and practice safe and environmentally responsible private-sector travel to the Antarctic. All activities adhere strictly to industry-generated Antarctic Visitor and Tour Operator Guidelines.
Route and itinerary
The Antarctic itinerary is always subject to change due to weather and ice conditions. The SOI website states: “We take advantage of all our opportunities, while at the same time respecting the power of the Antarctic climate.” Expeditions begin in late December when students travel to gateway cities of Toronto, New York, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, or Santiago, Chile, ultimately to convene as one international group in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost town in the world. Students typically spend a day in Ushuaia hiking into the Tierra del Fuego backcountry and participating in pre-expedition educational activities. The ship-based expedition begins as the expedition vessel exits the Beagle Channel and heads for the Drake Passage. SOI Antarctic expedition participants have the unique experience of celebrating Christmas or ringing in the New Year as they cross the Antarctic convergence and make their first landing in the South Shetland Islands.
On the return trip through the Drake Passage, the lecture series continues and student forum activities commence. The return trip, weather conditions permitting, includes a sail around famous Cape Horn. Students return to Ushuaia to disembark from the expedition vessel and catch return flights home via Buenos Aires, Santiago, New York and Toronto. According to the SOI website, a “journey that once took explorers two years to accomplish will now take us just over two weeks!”
The expedition vessel
In past years, a number of expedition vessels have been engaged for SOI Antarctic expeditions. They include MV Polar Star, which has been converted for expedition cruising, and the MV Akademik Shokalskiy. The SOI's southern expeditions have been conducted on the research vessel, the MV Ushuaia, built in 1970 for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She has served for the NOAA under the names Researcher and Malcolm Baldrige. The ship can carry approximately 84 passengers and staff and has more than 40 cabins as well as an open bridge policy, deck space, dedicated research areas and public areas including a dining room, an observation lounge, a conference room with modern multimedia equipment and a well-stocked library.
Arctic Youth Expeditions
Each Arctic ship-based journey follows a unique itinerary, but past SOI Arctic expeditions have explored Iceland, southern Greenland, in coastal regions of Baffin Island, the north shore of Labrador, coastal regions of Manitoba, and Canada's high Arctic. The expedition focus is on making links between local realities and global issues. Students visit Arctic communities and meet with local Inuit to consider how the Arctic shapes northern identity. They learn about the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems and explore options toward the advancement of a sustainable Arctic and a sustainable planet. While on the expedition, participants encounter a wide variety of wildlife, including whales, seals, polar bears, and seabirds, and they participate in hands-on educational and research activities. Activities include Zodiac cruises, shore landings, hikes, community visits, and ship-based presentations, workshops, small group discussions and time for personal reflection
Route and itinerary
On average, the summer expedition is 15 days in length. After participants have assembled in Ottawa, they fly north. The itinerary changes from year to year and expeditions have variously embarked from Iceland, Iqaluit, Nunavut, Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Churchill, Manitoba, or Pangnirtung and Baffin Island. Once aboard the ship, students have the opportunity to observe humpbacks, minke whales, orcas, narwhals, bowhead whales, belugas, walruses, polar bears and dozens of seabird species, and to explore high Arctic coastal regions via Zodiac boat excursions and landings to see glaciers, icebergs, fjords, and the world's northernmost communities and research stations. Expeditions beginning in Iceland have in the past included land-based activities such as a day in Reykjavík; visits to the Blue Lagoon, active geysers, Iceland's icecap, ancient fishing villages, the volcanic Vestmannaeyjar, or Westman Islands; a tour of a geothermal power plant; a hike in Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site or along the shores of Skagafjörður, aka the Skaga Fjord, Saudarkrokur; a trip to Hvammstangi, home of the Icelandic Seal Centre, or the Husavik Whale Museum, located on the eastern shore of the Skjalfandi Bay. Itineraries involving Greenland have featured visits to Herjorlfsnes, the Nordic settlement founded by Erik Thorvaldsson aka Erik the Red c. 985, the ancient hot springs on the island of Uunartoq, Jakobshavn Glacier; and Tasermiut Fjord. Expeditions to Labrador have included trekking in the Torngat Mountains National Park and Zodiac landings at Killiniq Island and Cape Chidley.
In past years, a number of expedition vessels have been engaged for SOI Arctic expeditions. They include the Akademik Ioffe, the Kapitan Khlebnikov, the MV Explorer, and the Polar Ambassador. Most recently, the SOI's expedition vessel of choice has been the MV Clipper Adventurer, an ice-capable charter ship operating in both polar regions. She was built in 1975 in the former Yugoslavia and operated as the Alla Tarasova. In 1998, she underwent a $13 million refit. She has capacity for 122 passengers in 61 cabins, all with exterior views. She also has a window-lined dining room, a library, and two common lounges.
Antarctic University Expeditions
In February 2009, SOI inaugurated its biennial Antarctic University Expedition in partnership with the University of Alberta, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of Ottawa as well as numerous corporate and government agencies. This ship-based expedition was the first of its kind and offered undergraduate and graduate students from any university anywhere in the world an opportunity to take university-level credit courses while on expedition to the Antarctic continent. The 2009 expedition involved 71 international students and 17 university faculty, scientists, policy makers and polar experts. A second university expedition was made in 2011, this time attracting more than 60 students from 23 universities and a team of 30 educators and other staff. The list of supporting universities included Carleton University, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, McGill University, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. The United Nations also became one of the sponsoring agencies for this expedition through the UN Environment Programme, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, and the UN Programme on Youth. The 2009 and 2011 university expeditions included field trips and landings on the Antarctic mainland. These were supplemented by lectures, presentations, seminars and lab exercises in a dedicated space aboard the expedition ship, the MV Ushuaia. Lectures and workshop subjects included geology, geopolitics, social and cultural history, terrestrial ecology, marine biology, glaciology, oceanography and hydrology, atmospheric sciences, ornithology, and environmental studies. Students were also given a chance to work with the education team members on ongoing scientific research (e.g., wildlife surveys, measuring pollution levels in ice core samples, plankton tows focusing on marine diversity, etc.) A third Students on Ice Antarctic University Expedition occurred December 27, 2013 – January 10, 2014.[8]
Expedition outcomes
Alumni achievements
Five SOI alumni have been selected as Loran Scholars, receiving Canada's largest undergraduate merit award. Four alumni have been awarded Toyota Earth Day national and regional scholarships,[9] and other alumni have won the Canadian Future Achiever Award,[10] the TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership,[11][12] and the Peter Thiel Foundation Fellowship.[13] An SOI alumna was recently awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford.[14]
Malaika Vaz aged 16, the youngest explorer to reach Antarctica was a member of 2012 Students on Ice Expedition team. She was also a member of the 2013 Arctic exploration team the youngest explorer to reach the Arctic[15][16]
SOI alumni have become award-winning entrepreneurs and inventors,[17] agents for sustainable development and governance,[18] environmental researchers,[19] global youth ambassadors,[20] and nationally recognized aboriginal youth leaders.[21]
In summer 2012, a group of Alumni created the Students on Ice Alumni Delegation and attended the UN Rio+20 Conference to raise awareness about polar sustainability issues. The delegation was selected to host a side event during the conference. The alumni delegation was also represented at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar.
Others have expressed their views in the media and the arts, science and environmental columnists, exhibited landscape artists, or as editors/contributors to the SOI alumnus publication, the Alumni Ice Cap newsletter.[22]
Other
In 2008, the Canadian government designated Niginganiq (Isabella Bay), Nunavut, as a National Wildlife Area after over 20 years of pressure from local Inuit and more recently, a petition campaign initiated by SOI alumni.[23][24][25] The Students on Ice 2009 documentary film Imiqutailaq – Path of the Arctic Tern[26] screened at the International Polar Year (IPY) Film Festival in 2009 and the Planet In Focus International Film & Video Festival in 2010.
SOI provides opportunities for established Canadian scientists to pursue their research in the field thus contributing to active museum collections and helping to advance the state of learning in their areas of expertise.[28]
The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freeze Fram into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.
New Swabia was a disputed Antarctic claim by Nazi Germany within the Norwegian territorial claim of Queen Maud Land and is now a cartographic name sometimes given to an area of Antarctica between 20°E and 10°W in Queen Maud Land. New Swabia was explored by Germany in early 1939 and named after that expedition's ship, Schwabenland, itself named after the German region of Swabia.
The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the South Pole.
MS Expedition is an expedition cruise ship owned and operated by the Canada-based G Adventures. She was built as a car/passenger ferry in 1972 by Helsingør Skibsværft og Maskinbyggeri A/S, Helsingør, Denmark as Kattegat for Jydsk Færgefart A/S. Subsequently, she sailed under the names nf Tiger for P&O Normandy Ferries, Tiger for Townsend Thoresen and Ålandsfärjan for Viking Line, prior to conversion into a cruise ship in 2008. The MS Expedition has the IMO number 7211074 and is ice-strengthened, having an ice class of 1B. There are two higher classes, being 1A Super and 1A.
Gerlache Strait or de Gerlache Strait or Détroit de la Belgica is a channel/strait separating the Palmer Archipelago from the Antarctic Peninsula. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition, under Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, explored the strait in January and February 1898, naming it for the expedition ship Belgica. The name was later changed to honor the commander himself.
Multiple governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the current research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rocks or on ice that are fixed in place.
National Geographic Orion is operated by New York City-based Lindblad Expeditions - National Geographic.
Sir James Clark Ross was a British Royal Navy officer and polar explorer known for his explorations of the Arctic, participating in two expeditions led by his uncle John Ross, and four led by William Edward Parry, and, in particular, for his own Antarctic expedition from 1839 to 1843.
Queen Maud Land is a roughly 2.7-million-square-kilometre (1.0-million-square-mile) region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. It borders the claimed British Antarctic Territory 20° west and the Australian Antarctic Territory 45° east. In addition, a small unclaimed area from 1939 was annexed in June 2015. Positioned in East Antarctica, it makes out about one-fifth of the continent, and is named after the Norwegian Queen Maud (1869–1938).
Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway, in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica from 1898 to 1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.
Piloto Pardo was a Chilean Navy auxiliary ship from 1959 until 1997. After decommissioning she was converted to an Antarctic expedition cruise ship and operated as such until 2012 under the name MV Antarctic Dream.
Oceanwide Expeditions is a Dutch company specializing in expedition-style voyages to Antarctica and the Arctic. Deploying its own fleet of ice-strengthened vessels, Oceanwide emphasizes small-scale, flexible tours that provide passengers close contact with polar wildlife, landscapes, and historical sites. Tours usually take place in regions only accessible by sea, with little to no infrastructure. The locations visited are first reached by ship, after which expedition guides take small groups of passengers to landing sites by way of Zodiac Milpro RIBs, enabling safe cruising and maximum shore time.
Poseidon Expeditions is a provider of polar expeditions. The company was started in 1999 as a tour operator specialising in expedition cruises to the North Pole and the Russian High Arctic aboard icebreakers and ice-strengthened ships.
Kathleen Elizabeth Conlan is an Antarctic marine biologist who studies sea floor marine life. She was named one of Canada's greatest explorers by Canadian Geographic.
Kim Crosbie is a former Executive Director of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and has been working in the polar regions since 1991.
Ernest Frederick "Fred" Roots was a Canadian geologist, polar explorer, educator and public servant. After graduating with undergraduate and master's degrees in geology from the University of British Columbia and a doctorate from Princeton University, Roots joined the Scott Polar Research Institute and was appointed Chief Geologist for the 1949 to 1952 Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition. During the expedition, in addition to ground-breaking geological and glaciological research studies, he made a 189-day, unsupported dog sled journey across the continent; a record that still stood at the time of his death over six decades later. On his return to Canada he joined the Geological Survey of Canada with whom he served as a field geologist until 1958, when he left to help found the Polar Continental Shelf Program. After 14 years with PCSP, Roots left to act as science advisor to the newly created federal Department of the Environment, where he remained on staff until 1989. After retirement, Roots remained an active participant in polar research, and also became a key mentor within the Students on Ice educational program. He continued to participate in expeditions for Students on Ice well into his tenth decade, his last being to Greenland only two months before his death.
International competition extended to the continent of Antarctica during the World War II era, though the region saw no combat. During the prelude to war, Nazi Germany organised the 1938 Third German Antarctic Expedition to preempt Norway's claim to Queen Maud Land. The expedition served as the basis for a new German claim, called New Swabia. A year later, the United States Antarctic Service Expedition established two bases, which operated for two years before being abandoned. Responding to these encroachments, and taking advantage of Europe's wartime turmoil, the nearby nations of Chile and Argentina made their own claims. In 1940 Chile proclaimed the Chilean Antarctic Territory in areas already claimed by Britain, while Argentina proclaimed Argentine Antarctica in 1943 in an overlapping area.
Silver Endeavour is a cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises. Originally built for Crystal Cruises by MV Werften in Stralsund, Germany, she was laid down in 2018 and completed in June 2021. She is the world's largest ice class expedition yacht, bearing a Polar Class rating of PC6.
The Antarctic gateway cities are five cities on the rim of the Southern Ocean through which nearly all cargo and personnel bound for Antarctica pass. From west to east, they are Punta Arenas, Chile; Ushuaia, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Hobart, Australia; and Christchurch, New Zealand. As Antarctica is a low-resource environment with no major transportation infrastructure of its own, gateway cities are a necessary part of all Antarctic activities.
References
↑ Smith, Gregory A.; Gruenewald, David A. (15 August 2007). Place-based education in the global age: local diversity. New York: Routledge. p.xvi. ISBN978-0805858648.
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