Coming to some Mississippi classrooms during this and following weeks: conversations and video live from Antarctica.
With assistance from Mississippi State University's Television Center, Tupelo middle school children on Thursday [Jan. 23] will be among a select few around the nation who can communicate with scientists working in the world's coldest and windiest continent.
In the first of three one-hour programs to be broadcast nationally by the Public Broadcasting System, students will see and talk to scientists from the National Science Foundation-funded Palmer Station. They'll learn about the biology and ecology of the ice-covered region, said David Hutto, director of the University Television Center.
"This is the second Antarctica program coordinated by the Passport to Knowledge project," he explained. The project is a partnership among several agencies, including NSF and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Tupelo fifth and sixth graders will join with school children in California to interact with researchers in the live noon program.
Over the next two weeks, the Television Center also will involve school children gathered at the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County and students at Belmont Middle School in Tishomingo County for interactive sessions also to be broadcast nationally.
"David Powe of NASA's Tri-State Education Initiative in Tishomingo County was instrumental in establishing these learning sites," Hutto said.
Mississippi State physics professor Sandra Harpole will moderate the programs.
Last year, Mississippi State helped produce "Live from the Stratosphere," another Passport to Knowledge program. Students at Booneville Middle School were able to interact with scientists who were flying above the earth in a research vehicle. Hutto said the producers "were happy with the results and came back to us for this Antarctica project."
Hutto is directing all three "Passport to Knowledge" programs that involve telecommunication specialists from Mississippi State, PBS and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.