I.D. Antarctica 2020
Help identify some of the amazing marine organisms that live in Antarctica!
Join Andrew Corso, a PhD candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and identify “mystery” creatures from his Winter 2020 research cruise off the coast of the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
During January-February 2020, this adventure unfolded in real-time via weekly blog posts. In April 2020, Andrew facilitated a similar virtual program in conjunction with NJ 4-H from Home.
Now, we’ve compiled these resources here to help students and families explore life in the Southern Ocean, with Andrew as your guide. You can follow along using by using the table below. Each challenge provides a link to Andrew’s original blog post, the identification key and an explanation of the answer by Andrew.
Especially for K12 Teachers: We’ve created this slide deck, with abbreviated content, to share with your students. It will allow them to step through each week’s challenges without skipping ahead to the answers. All of the answers are linked in this separate slide. You may also want to use this brief Antarctica Worksheet to get oriented.
Challenge | Resources |
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Start with Andrew’s Mystery Creature Challenge #1: Sea Birds
Download this week’s identification key here: Week 1 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right? Check your answer here. |
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Ready for more? Try Andrew’s Mystery Creature Challenge #2: Zooplankton
Download this week’s identification key here: Week 2 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right? Check your answer here. |
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Now you’ve got the hang of it! Here’s Mystery Creature Challenge #3: Fish
Download this week’s identification key here: Week 3 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right? Check your answer here. Want to know more about this mystery creature?
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Test your skills! Identify a pair of Mystery Creatures in Andrew’s Challenge #4: Zooplankton Predator-Prey
Download this week’s identification key here to identify both these zooplankton: Week 4 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right? Check your answer here. Want to know more about these mystery creatures?
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Bonus round! Mystery Creature Challenge #5 Penguins
Download this week’s key and and test your ability to identify different species of penguins: Week 5 Mystery Creature and Identification Key Did you get it right? Check your answer here. Want to know more about penguins on the Western Antarctic Peninsula?
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Andrew Corso, a PhD candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, will be leading I.D. Antarctica. While he is primarily researching the impacts of climate change on Antarctic fishes, he has the opportunity to work with scientists studying a variety of Antarctic organisms, ranging from bacteria to whales. Andrew’s greatest passion is photography and his specialized equipment will help illustrate the otherworldly animals of the Southern Ocean.