Monday, August 16, 1999
Bound for Antarctica, teacher's bundling up
BY ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
While other Tristate high school teachers sweat out daily classes this fall, one will pull on 35 pounds of cold-weather gear.
She will step outside each morning onto an ice shelf the size of Texas and walk to work in the coldest, windiest and driest place on earth — Antarctica.
“It's going to be awesome,” said Sharon Harris, who teaches science at Mother of Mercy High School in Westwood. “I'll believe it when I land.”
She'll live among 1,200 others at the American McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf, and pursue her research on a lake in the nearby Dry Valleys — so named because no rain or snow has fallen there for 2 million years.
Ms. Harris is part of a project called Teachers Experiencing the Antarctic, spon sored by the National Science Foundation.
Her individual project involves the metabolism — chemical and physical processes — of bacteria in a frozen lake. She wants to know more about links between metals in the water and the ways bacteria react.
Ms. Harris was one of eight U.S. teachers chosen to conduct research in Antarctica this fall.
Local students will benefit when the 42-year-old from West Chester returns and develops an Antarctic curriculum for the classroom. Meanwhile, anyone can follow her journey online and can talk to her via e-mail while she's there.
Ms. Harris returned this weekend from two weeks of research preparations at Princeton University in New Jersey and will teach from Aug. 26.
Then, on Oct. 25, she will leave for Antarctica. She'll stop for last-minute preparations in New Zealand.
When conditions are right, Ms. Harris will fly to the continent that covers more than 5 million square miles and holds more than 90 percent of the world's permanent ice and snow.
There, Ms. Harris will bundle up for subzero nighttime temperatures — even though it will be summer. High temperatures could reach into the 30s at midday because the ice shelf borders the Pacific Ocean. At inland spots, temperatures never rise above freezing.
She will be able to watch the sun shine around the clock, because of the South Pole's tilt toward the sun in late fall.
She will take survival courses and will bathe just once a week to conserve water, and she'll write to students about each new experience.
Stephanie Shipp, national Antarctic project director, said 60 U.S. teachers have traveled to Antarctica or the Arctic since the program began in 1992. Ms. Harris is the first from the Tristate. “It changes everyone in a different way to be in such a remote location, to be so closely involved with research,” Ms. Shipp said. “Many (teachers), after reflecting, share that it also changes their teaching.”
Ms. Harris wants to change the way students think of Antarctica. Few can identify it, she said. “They think it's at the North Pole.”
Fewer know the continent is shared peacefully by 43 countries that have sworn to protect its environment, she said.
Mentoring two local teachers — who remains to be chosen — and developing course material that brings polar research into local classrooms are requirements of Ms. Harris' participation. She'll also keep a journal online at http://tea.rice.edu so students, parents and others can follow her research and journey.
Living near the South Pole will be new, but she's accustomed to serious research. Ms. Harris worked as a microbiologist for 13 years at three universities and an Environmental Protection Agency contract lab before deciding to teach high school.
She has taught science at Mother of Mercy for four years.
Last fall, Ms. Harris applied for the Antarctic research program to fulfill the summer professional development requirement for Ohio teachers.
Ms. Shipp, the project director, said competition was keen but she would not say how many teachers apply.
Ms. Harris was accepted just after Easter.
“I absolutely didn't entertain any thoughts about getting to do this,” she said. “I couldn't believe it.”
She is eager to talk at other schools before and after her trip.
“That's why I want to go and come back,” she said, “so I can teach the community about the continent.”
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