Students Hear About First Saildrone Antarctica Circumnavigation

Members from ‘Saildrone’ told Year 9 students about their first unmanned surface circumnavigation of Antarctica, on 6 March 2019.

Students heard how two unmanned Saildrones* left Bluff, New Zealand on 20 January 2019 for an epic 270-day scientific journey to collect ocean data in the Southern Ocean. With the weekly blogs and data on the website students were encouraged to use the data and be scientists themselves. They also learnt about two contests in which students have the chance to win a trip to San Francisco, to visit Saildrone and other innovative tech companies.

More information about the contests…

Wing Design Contest. Students can create a design for a Saildrone wing and one winner will be chosen, in two age categories, with the winning designs being reproduced on an actual Saildrone. The winner will also be flown to San Francisco to see their Saildrone design.

“How Antarctica Affects Me” Video Contest. This contest is designed for students to study some of the lesson plans from the website with the teachers and understand how changes that are happening in Antarctica can affect them in Hong Kong.  Students will be required to present their views via a video presentation (60 seconds or less).  Three winners will be chosen from Hong Kong and will win a trip to San Francisco to visit Saildrone and other innovative tech start-ups (supported by the Li Ka Shing Foundation).

*Notes, Saildrone.com designs and manufactures wind and solar-powered autonomous surface vehicles called saildrones, which make cost-effective ocean data collection possible at scale. They are building the world’s largest high-resolution ocean datasets, working with governments and private companies around the globe. The Saildrone Antarctic Circumnavigation Project was sponsored by the Li Ka Shing Foundation.