Pierce students to share in Antarctic journey

Pierce Elementary School sixth-graders Kelsi Wenz and Rachel Lundley examine a vial of Belgica Antarctica specimens, the largest living animal that lives on the Antarctic continent year-round.

Staff photo by Richard O Jones Pierce Elementary School sixth-graders Kelsi Wenz and Rachel Lundley examine a vial of Belgica Antarctica specimens, the largest living animal that lives on the Antarctic continent year-round.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 8:48 PM Wednesday, November 4, 2009

HAMILTON — Miami University entomologist Richard E. Lee will embark on a journey to Antarctica in January, and he invited a group of Pierce Elementary students to join the project via the Internet.

Lee’s expedition will take him to the Palmer Station, a research facility on the Antarctic Peninsula, to gather samples and do on-site research on the Beligica antarctica, a wingless insect that is the continent’s largest free-living land animal.

“They call Antarctica ‘a continent for science’ because there are no people living there and because Antarctica doesn’t belong to anyone,” Lee told the students in Mary Ann Richter’s Gifted Education class on Wednesday, Nov. 4. “There are some territorial claims, but they’ve all been set aside and all of the scientists there share whatever they learn.”

The Palmer Station is one of 40 scientific stations on the continent, three of them run by teams from the United States. Lee has been going there annually since 2005 with a research team that includes graduate students and a different educator.

“Each year that I’ve gone down there I’ve taken a teacher with me,” he said. “We want to tell the school children what we’re doing because we’re there on a grant from the National Science Foundation.”

The research is in determining how the Beligica antarctica can live in extreme weather conditions. In addition to severe cold, the tiny insect can survive a dehydrated state and go for a month without oxygen.

Richter said that the students will work independently on projects related to global warming and communicate with Lee during his expedition. When he returns in February, he will return to the class.

“Students will in turn share information about their research and complete projects set up for them to do by Dr. Lee,” she said. “So it’s a show and tell for both sides.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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