ANDRILL & Project Iceberg

Joanna Hubbard

« Return to Project Iceberg home page

About Joanna

This is my 10th year with ASD as a science teacher, currently working with teachers around the district. I have a MS in Science Education. Being active outside is a favorite pastime - I enjoy orienteering, hiking, bird-watching, and SCUBA diving. Traveling in the US and around the world to learn new things and meet different people is important to me. Drawing or photography always help me look more closely at everything.

About the Project

Starting on Oct 8 through the beginning of December (could be as early as Dec 4 or as late as the 14th- quite variable at this point). I'll be at McMurdo Station (the largest of the three permanent US Antarctic Program stations ­ more info at www.usap.gov) working with ANDRILL, a multinational scientific drilling project. I will be working with the science team as well as doing educational outreach with 5 other educators ­ 2 from the lower 48 and one each from the other major partner nations in the ANDRILL project ­ Italy, Germany, and New Zealand.

Previous Experience

I worked in Antarctica in the 1999-2000 season for two and a half months starting at the end of February at Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula as a science educator with a marine chemical ecology team. We spent the majority of our time there SCUBA diving to collect marine macroalgae (seaweed) and invertebrates. The primary goal of that science group was to understand how these plants and animals use chemicals within their bodies for defense, survival, and structural support; they also did some bio-prospecting for new chemical compounds that might have a positive effect on human health. Archived journals from that experience can be found at http://tea.armadaproject.org/tea_hubbardfrontpage.html.

This visit, I'm most excited about learning how to "read" the rocks. My background is in biology, not geology. I can't wait to understand what the scientists are learning about the past environment from clues in the rock core. I'm also looking forward to being on the main continent of Antarctica, inside the Antarctic circle!