Educational Media Reviews Online

Viewers of Canadian public television may be familiar with films such as Arctic Mission and Whale Mission associated with the 51-meter sailing and research vessel Sedna IV. Antarctic Mission is a three-episode series chronicling a 430-day voyage to Antarctic waters where the ship and crew interact with and learn from various research scientists. The three well-edited and beautifully filmed segments are of perfect length for classroom use. The first episode, Islands at the Edge, documents a visit to the South Georgia islands where viewers learn about penguins, fur seals, albatross and elephant seals and how they are being impacted by climate change. A Window on a Changing Climate helps us better understand the influence of Antarctica on the global climate cycle. In the final episode, The Great Ocean of Ice, the crew of the Sedna IV spends an austral winter trapped in the ice in order to document the impact of global warming on Antarctic wildlife. Underwood and Lemire have done a wonderful job translating the work of scientists into an easily-understood introductory text for the layperson. Sadly, what we learn is that the effects of global warming are already taking a toll in the Antarctic ecosystem and at a faster rate than anticipated. There is no shortage of available video material on the topic of global warming and climate change and choosing the right videos for your collection could well be a challenge, but Antarctic Mission will have a broad appeal to users. Children may find some of the predation scenes in the video to be disturbing, but this is an excellent series of short documentaries, featuring stunning photography and well-documented science, which I highly recommend for high-school, public and college libraries.