Youth Exploring Science

Expeditionist Davy Newell answers your questions

jason — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:33:03 +0000

Watch the interview here: Interview Part 1 Interview Part 2

Questions for Davy from Le Rocquier School, Year 11, Geography Class

Personal

Who are you and where do you live?

How would you describe yourself as a person?

What motivates you to do such extreme activities?

Who’s your inspiration? Why?

Have you ever been to a desert environment before?

Whilst away, what will you miss most?

Selection Process

How did you hear about the expedition?

How many people applied to be on the expedition?What was the selection process for the expedition?

Preparation

What training have you had to do to prepare yourself?

What expeditions or adventure activities have you done before?

What equipment will you be using? What’s the most important piece? Do you have any new specialist equipment for this walk?

What ‘luxury’ items will you take with you?

How many pairs of socks will you pack?

Expectations

What do you see as the biggest challenges during the expedition?

How much weight do you expect to lose on this expedition? – Are you putting extra weight on advance?

During

You will need a large amount of water to survive – how are you going to provide this?

What special clothing will you be wearing?

What’s the emergency plan if things go wrong? – What backup support do you have?

If one member of the team starts to struggle, what happens?

What food will you be eating during the expedition?

Will you be using anything from the local / natural environment (e.g. edible plants etc)

When in the day will you be walking? – Will you avoid the heat of the day?

What natural wildlife will you encounter? – Friend or For?

What environmental impact will this expedition have?

Is there any part of the expedition which you think will be particularly hard?

What news coverage / following are you expecting to have?

Miscellaneous

Has anyone ever attempted this walk before?

Is there the chance that this walk is too much and you may fail? – How hard is this expedition?

On a scale of 1-10, how dangerous is this expedition?

When is the National Geographic Documentary going to be aired?

Other than completing the personal challenge of the expedition, are there any larger targets / aims of the trip?

Thank you and good luck

Skeleton Coast

jason — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:09:18 +0000

Study the terrain of the worlds oldest, most rugged and restricted coastline with gravel plains in the north, high sand dunes in the south, thousands of ship wrecks in between and not a drop of fresh water in sight anywhere down the 300 mile long coast but supporting a host of wildlife including rhinos, seals, lions, flamingos, sharks, gemsboks and cheetahs. Meet the guys and girls on the expedition and follow them as they make their way up the Skeleton Coast and find out what Skeleton Coast expeditionist Davy Newell thinks the chances of success are.

Le Rocquier School – Jersey

jason — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:10:13 +0000

GCSE Geography students at Le Rocquier School in Jersey will be following the Skeleton Coast Expedition commencing on 2nd October for their GCSE topics: ‘Geography in the News’ and ‘Extreme Environments.’ For this the students will be folllowing the plight of the trekkers via blog updates and press publications to get an impression of the conditions such as weather patterns, geology, food and water. Find out just some of the amazing areas of scientific study in this beautiful wilderness here. Also see the interview with trekker David Newell on his expectations and reasons for going.

Arctic Module chosen by Amersham School

jason — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:02:03 +0000

The Arctic module is due to leave in May 2010 taking 20 students and teachers to the worlds most northern Island called Svalbard. Students will be exposed to the harsh arctic conditions while working with a sports scientist on the effects of low tempertures on the body and the way it copes.

Global Dimension…

jason — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:18:06 +0000

The QCA have a launched “Global Dimension” this give examples of how we can all try and act as a global community and have better understanding of the world around us. Youth Exploring Science support this and want to take this one step further to not only understand the earth but to take part in making it better.

Sunninghill School – Dorset

jason — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:06:37 +0000

A three person teamincluding a scientist visited Sunninghill School to spend the afternoon learning in an unique way on all the aspects of extreme environments.

“The children and staff thought it was a superb afternoon and enjoyed it very much. Do you have any photos we can use for local publicity or video footage we can extract photos from?”

Oliver Herbert, Sunninghill School

Hollyfield School – Surbiton, Surrey

jason — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:13:11 +0000

Hollyfield School invited Jason De Carteret to talk about the North Pole and living in conditions of -40c…..

Joe Gale said…..

Jason came in to do the talk which was really good fun. Then we managed to have the satellite phone link after the Easter holidays which gave the pupils the opportunity to ask some of the questions that had they had been pondering. Overall a great link and I hope to have future activities with Jason. Thanks for your help…feel free to send any more links my way. I really enjoy organising these kinds of acitvities for the kids.

“Jason came in to do the talk which was really good fun. Then we managed to have the satellite phone link after the Easter holidays which gave the pupils the opportunity to ask some of the questions that had they had been pondering. Overall a great link and I hope to have future activities with Jason. Thanks for your help…feel free to send any more links my way. I really enjoy organising these kinds of acitvities for the kids.”

Northbourne Park School – Deal, Kent

jason — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:22:06 +0000

“Yvonne it was great to get call a call from a Polar explorer 5 pm. I have three pupils who talked to her for more than 10 minutes. We have recorded the interview on the laptop in my office and we are in the process of editing it. I shall send you a copy asap. She is doing well and she has described very well her living conditions in the artic. The pupils have been extremely impressed.”

A Bientot and Thanks for this. Kind Regards, Patrick Papougnot

The Gambia biodiversity

jason — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:56:40 +0000

The study of the progress made to date with cataloguing the biodiversity of a country for the first time. Stage One of this project has already been done by those at the Darwin Centre in the Gambia. Of interest to students: How does one go about making records of all the flora and fauna of a country?

Students in the UK might examine their own local environment and think about how they would go about it. The students in the Gambia need computers and computer training to communicate and to participate from their side.

Galapagos Island Gulls

jason — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:52:30 +0000

In this Darwin centenary year, scientists are identifying one piece of research currently being undertaken in the Galapagos and use it to show the setting where Darwin made his observations while sailing on the Beagle and one way in which his ideas remain relevant to current thinking. The task will involve working with a student doing his PhD on a unique species of Gull located in the Galapagos. From the data and video footage taken in the Galapagos at the end of 2009 he will have the opportunity to create a science module in the first half of 2010.