PROJECT
www.jaconline.com.au
Living in Antarctica
2030
1. Why do people go to Antarctica?
a. List the reasons why people go to Antarctica – both historically and today.
2000
b. Match the following dates with important events in Antarctica’s history
and mark them on the timeline opposite:
1773 • 1822 • 1911 • 1954 • 1958 • 1986 • 1991
c. Do you notice any changes in the reasons for people’s involvement in Antarctica?
d. Based on this exercise, what do you see as the most likely possible
scenario for Antarctica’s future? Place this future on your timeline.
2. What is life really like in Antarctica?
Explore the Mawson Antarctic base through its website (see web address below).
1950
a. Learn about the station’s staff, read their biographies and record their jobs.
b. How many are involved in scientific work and how many are service personnel?
c. Most of these people stay for the Antarctic summer and return to Australia
for the winter. Why do you think this is the case?
d. What wildlife is there near the base?
e. “the peaks of the highest mountains protrude through the ice.” (See references below).
Find a picture from the website that illustrates this point.
1900
f. Find other text sentences from one of the book references below that could use photos
from the Mawson Images file to illustrate them. Use a program such as Microsoft
PowerPoint to present these images and sentences to the class. Otherwise, you could
print them and use them to illustrate a poster. Here is another example: “Antarctica has
always been a hazardous place to visit.”
g. Describe the view from the Mawson webcam that shows what is currently happening
at the base. Bookmark this webcam so you can keep an eye on it for a few months to
watch the sea ice grow and decline.
1850
1800
References: Jacaranda SOSE 2 2E, Ch 8 • Jacaranda SOSE: Geography 2, Ch 4
Geoactive 1, pp 140–157 • www.antdiv.gov.au/stations/mawson
antarctic-living.pdf
1750
 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2004