Antarctica: Learning about Shackleton

I’d love to say that I single-handedly came up with the lesson plans for our final week in Antarctica, but since I found some that were amazing, I have to share them!

We found the movie Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure through Netflix and we watched it several times. I even cried watching it! The story is absolutely amazing, and if you haven’t heard about it, this is one that you should really check out! You can see a trailer of the film here.

The lesson plans that I found go along with the movie and provide a HUGE resource for teachers and students to follow along and learn more about Shackleton. You can access the full set of plans here and there is also a family movie guide too.

Using the guide, here’s how our week looked:

Monday – We watched the movie together after working on some of our general schoolwork. We also spent a little time on the NOVA online site looking at virtual 360 pictures of various places in Antarctica.

Tuesday – We tracked Shackleton’s expedition using latitude and longitude and the timeline that was provided. We followed along mapping where he first started out, where his ship got stuck and crushed, where the crew was stranded, and eventually where the crew was rescued.

I have to say that McKenna absolutely amazed me during this activity. She was mapping points so quickly and accurately! Have to say that I was rather impressed. :)

Wednesday – We did another journaling activity called “In Your Own Words”. First, we read through different journal entries from Shackleton and his crew. When we were done reading through those entries, we created some of our own entries journaling our day.

Thursday – We did an activity called “What’s on Your Plate?” comparing the things that we ate during our day and what a typical day for Shackleton’s crew might have been. We figured up caloric values and also talked about the differences between carbohydrates, proteins, and/or fat.

Here are some other great resources on Shackleton also:

• Nova online – 360 degree views of Antarctica. Also some other great links via this site.
• Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure film site – lesson plans that I used this week and also some other great resources
• Answers.com – more biography information on Ernest Shackleton
• Nova online – different lesson plans for middle schoolers and up

Hope these resouces help you all out! Can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed spending time in Antarctica!