Instructify

December 9, 2009

Do you remember the penguin renaissance of 2005-2007 when every movie was about antarctic fowl going surfing, doing a dance, or marching around? I think I found myself rooting for the leopard seal after a while.

Penguins’ overexposure has subsided since then, as has my irritation. That means I’m finally in a good enough frame of mind to look at Penguinscience, a science-education site that introduces students to Adelie penguins.

Penguinscience has lots of things to do, particularly in their education section. In addition to reading up on Adelie penguins and their adaptations to a changing climate, students can read journals of the researchers, watch time-lapse animations of the penguins, or make a penguin cartoon.

Students can also send questions to actual penguin researchers, and even receive a postcard from Antarctica (how many people can say they have one of those?). You have to supply the postcards yourself, but it’s still a cool opportunity. They need to be received by the researchers by December 31, 2009.

If you’re up for a creative class project, your kids can design a flag, which frostbitten researchers will fly outside their research station. The link to this area of the site is broken, but you can probably mail them your flag anyway — Antarctica isn’t exactly a booming neighborhood, so I doubt the postman would have too much trouble finding them. Like the postcards, however, they must receive the flag by December 31, so you’d better get cracking on that.

Penguinscience is a good classroom destination as the weather continues to get colder. Now that I’m not bombarded by penguin movies, I may have to visit the site again myself.

Wait, there’s a cartoon about the penguins from Madagascar? Aargh!

Penguinscience

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Random roundup: The animal kingdom