West Kirby student heading for the Arctic

Feb 27 2008 by Lorna Hughes, Hoylake and West Kirby News

A WEST Kirby student is about to set out on the trip of a lifetime to the Canadian High Arctic.

Emma Brown, a sixth-former at West Kirby Grammar School, will be joining a two-week international scientific expedition, which includes a week on board Canada's state-of-the-art research icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen.

Her visit is part of an international Polar Year science programme.

Emma won the chance to represent the UK on the expedition when she entered a competition run by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Liverpool.

Judges were impressed by her presentation on climate change in the Arctic and her enthusiasm.

Emma said: “I'm so excited about winning this trip - it's the opportunity of a lifetime.

“I’m very interested in geography and climate change, and in the Arctic I'll actually be witnessing the changes that are happening there, so that will really bring the whole subject to life.”

Accompanied by her teacher, Mandi Szuplewski, Emma will begin her adventure next Saturday, March 1, when the pair fly to Winnipeg, Canada.

There they will meet up with the rest of the group, which consists of 12 students and teachers from Spain, China and the USA as well as Canada and the UK.

Together they will participate in the Schools on Board programme, run by the University of Manitoba in Canada.

They will take part in laboratory and field work such as collecting ice cores and snow samples, and examining microscopic life.

Andrew Willmott, director of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, said: “In the UK we are funding increasing amounts of Arctic research, which is important as the year-on-year decrease in sea ice cover in the Arctic will have profound effects, both locally and globally, on climate change.”

Funding for the trip has come from the University of Manitoba, Canada, with contributions from West Kirby Grammar School and the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory.

l Follow Emma’s adventures in the Arctic on www.ipy-cfl.ca/page18/page18.html or via West Kirby Grammar School at www.westkirby-grammar.wirral.sch.uk