Antarctica – a land of extremes Antarctica is the highest, whitest, driest, coldest and windiest continent on Earth. It’s so cold that creatures often retreat to the sea to warm up. Add 24 hours ...
Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest and highest continent on Earth. What makes the frozen continent so valuable to scientists and vulnerable to human contact? Every year, scientists and ...
In Antarctica, winter temperatures can vary from -70ºC to -15ºC – it is one of the coldest places to live on earth. To survive in the Antarctic, keeping warm becomes a very important focus, and ...
The Earth’s continents have not always been where they are at present. If you look at a map of the world, you might notice what Alfred Wegener noticed – that the continents look as if they could ...
One implication of climate change is sea level rise. Sea level is the average height of the ocean relative to the land, between the high and low tides. The rising global temperature is causing ...
Climate change is one of the world’s big issues. It is also a big topic to tackle in the classroom. The Hub’s planning pathways interactive suggests ways in which climate change can be broken ...
This animated video shows the movement of the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. Starting 600 million years ago, watch continents form and break apart as the plates move. Pangaea the ...
It’s less than 200 years since people first stepped foot onto Antarctica. Explore this timeline to see some key dates in the early discoveries of this icy continent. Until 1780 – Terra Australis ...
Antarctica is not just a land of ice and snow – it is the coldest, driest climate on earth. When we say the word ‘desert’, we might imagine sand and camels, but in fact a desert is any place that ...
The Antarctic ecosystem is unique in that the food chains are very short and often based on the availability of krill, which is vital for all animal life forms living in Antarctica. The waters ...
During winter, the average temperature in the South Pole is -60C, but in the North Pole it is -30C. Why is there such a difference? Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato ...
Help scientists establish valuable baseline data about the numbers, locations, habits and health of penguins in a range of Southern Ocean sites. This information will enable better understanding ...
Ice caps have come and gone over the Earth’s surface for many millions of years. What has caused the cyclical warming and cooling of our planet. In the 1920s and 1930s, Milutin Milankovitch, a ...
In this activity, students build simple models to demonstrate the differing impacts of melting land ice and sea ice on sea level rise. Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato ...
In this activity, students learn about animal and plant adaptations in Antarctic species and use these ideas to design their own unique animal or plant. By the end of this activity, students ...
Climate affects our lives, and it will continue to affect our future. But how do we know what might change over time? Scientists often use models to represent and test ideas and processes. A ...
Icebergs are thick masses of ice floating in the ocean. They form when large chunks of ice break off a glacier or an ice shelf and float free in the sea. This is called calving. Many new icebergs ...
Professor Keith Hunter, of the University of Otago, explains how the ocean links several Earth systems, and is like a vast biological, chemical and geological factory. Huge currents act like ...
Our oceans are absorbing about one-third of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As a result, they are becoming more acidic. Associate Professor Abby Smith, from the University of Otago, is ...
This interactive groups Hub resources into key science and teaching concepts. The article Climate change resources – planning pathways provides pedagogical advice and links to the New Zealand ...
As New Zealanders looking to the future, we are faced with many opportunities – and challenges. These include improving the health of all our people, advancing our economic growth, protecting our ...
A changing climate The Earth’s climate is always changing, but the changes are usually very slow – typically taking hundreds to thousands of years. Natural processes such as variations in the ...
Seals are marine mammals found the world over. Characterised by their torpedo shape, seals are intelligent and playful animals. Antarctica is home to different seal species, each sharing a basic ...
At first glance, there isn’t much of a family resemblance between penguins and other birds. In fact, in many ways, penguins seem closer to fish! They are flightless, have flippers and spend more ...
