December 31, 2009

     Just call her O.A.E. -- an Old Antarctic Explorer.
     Corning East High School special education teacher Michele Cross isn't old, but she's now part a special club.
     She recently returned from six-and-a-half weeks on the southern-most continent.
     “It was just kind of felt like home, like I was supposed to be there,” explained Cross.
     Cross landed at McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica on November 4.
     “It felt like we could've been on the moon because it was so stark and barren,” said Cross.  “To see air as clear as you're ever going to see.  To see shades of blue that I've never seen before - in the sky and in the ice.")
     Cross took part in a program called PolarTrec. It pairs school teachers with teams of scientists on the ice-covered continent.
     Coss' team submerged this capsule called "SCINI" 1,100 feet beneath the ice to take pictures of life on the sea floor.
     “We saw species that haven't been identified,” said Cross.
     Cross will use SCINI’s pictures in her lesson plans and activities in her class back at east high, but she's a little torn.
     “I think it's in our nature to be curious and to want to explore.   But there's another part of me that thinks that maybe there should be something left that we just don't know,” she said.
     Along her journey, cross met a few new friends (penguins and seals), and hung up her class's "dream flags" for a science experiment.  She can't wait to share the results with her kids.
     “If they can just think big enough, and think outside the box, I think they'll find that there's a whole other world out there they had no idea existed,” said Cross.
     Cross returns to Corning East on Monday.
     
    
CLICK HERE to read Cross’ journal from her journey.  (She’ll continue to update it!)