Antarctic Adventures: Life Lessons from Polar Explorers

By John Barell

Antarctic Adventures is more than a set of guidelines for how to take control of our lives through goal setting, decision making, and problem solving. It is also an approach to living a productive life characterized by inquiry, critical thinking, learning to pay attention to natural wonders, and being fully awake to lifes mysteries and opportunities. Based on the authors experiences exploring Antarctica, this book finds life lessons in the most renowned polar explorers as well as those like Sally Ride, who explored outer space, and successful men and women in sports and business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Nov 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504366526

John Barell

John Barell delved deeply into Antarctic literature at age thirteen, and his inquiries led to meeting Admiral Richard E. Byrd and sailing to Antarctica as part of Operation Deepfreeze to explore that continent. After Antarctica, he became an educator in New York City public high schools then at Montclair State University in teacher education and world literature (now professor emeritus). Subsequently, he was a consultant at the American Museum of Natural History where he continued his work fostering inquiry in school, home, and out in the field. See his projects at www.morecuriousminds.com.

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Copyright © 2016 John Barell.

Cover image: Ferrar Glacier, Eli Duke. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-5043-6651-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6652-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016916684

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/20/2017

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Preface

Chapter One     Flight to the Unknown

Chapter Two     The Amazing Power of Imagination

Chapter Three    Dream Big to Achieve

Chapter Four     How do we Get to Where we Want to Go?

Chapter Five     Learning How to Survive Desperate Situations

Chapter Six       Making Discoveries

Chapter Seven    Problem Solving Along the Way

Chapter Eight     Team Building

Chapter Nine     A healthy skepticism

Chapter Ten       Mapping Our Futures

Chapter Eleven    Writing Your Own Stories

Chapter Twelve    The Journey of Life

About the Author

DEDICATION

For those who have been stalwart members of my team all these years, men of bold stripe and dear friends:

Bob Williams

Dave Parker

Jon Gilman

Don Epperson

Marvin Stark

And for the best friend of all, Nancy Ann.

Other books by John Barell

Playgrounds of Our Minds, 1980

Opening the American Mind, 1987

Teaching for Thoughtfulness—Classroom Strategies

to Enhance Intellectual Development, 2/e 1995

Developing More Curious Minds, 2003

Problem-Based Learning—An Inquiry Approach, 2/e 2007

How Do We Know They’re Getting Better? Assessment

for 21st Century Minds, 2012

Did You Ever Wonder? Fostering Curiosity Here, There

and Everywhere, 2013

Moving from WHAT to What if? Teaching Critical Thinking

with Authentic Inquiry and Assessment, 2016

Why Are School Buses Always Yellow? Teaching Inquiry

K-8, 2/e 2016

Books about Antarctica

Quest for Antarctica—A Journey of Wonder and Discovery, 2007, 2011, ebook

(memoir)

Surviving Erebus—An Antarctic Adventure on board HMS

Erebus and Terror, 2007, 2012 (YA novel)

Novels

Absolute Bearing, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield notes that no astronaut flies alone. Each has back-up and replacement crew members—ground control support as well as experts from around the world for each component of a space craft or space station.

Similarly, even though an author usually pens his or her words in solitude, it takes a whole host of folks reading, analyzing and working on the manuscript before it reaches the public eye.

This book owes many thanks to so many people:

Mary Darr, Gifted Specialist, Sandusky, OH and her seventh and eighth grade students who were the first people to take a look at earlier and later versions of Antarctic Adventures. I am always in their debt and, especially, to McKenzie who noted, Your writing is getting better.

Joe Deiss, a distinguished journalist, read earlier drafts and lent his enthusiastic support to its ideas and practical approaches to personal development.

Dale Jacobs, a former subcontractor at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, shared his considerable expertise in problem solving, mostly derived from his youthful experiences with parents and grandparents who fostered his curiosity.

Dr. Mary Ann Burke, a renowned Corwin author herself, provided the most in-depth developmental editing of the final manuscript. Her commitment to the ideas within this book has been thorough, insightful and invaluable. She opened my eyes to some of the idiosyncracies of my writing style that were impeding comprehension for Mary Darr’s eighth graders.

Missy Graff, my sister, whose sharp eye and keen sensitivity to the meanings and nuances of language provided a much-needed final examination of this manuscript. So often her suggestions worked to clarify the messages I was attempting. Her insights reflect how deeply we in the family have been affected by the love of language fostered by our parents and grandparents. To them I owe an especial thanks.

And to Nancy Ann, wife, companion and friend, who has helped in countless ways during the last several months completing this project.

Of course, as author, I am ultimately responsible for the quality of what is written here.

To all of you I offer this final version the manuscript and hope it lives up to your expectations. Many thanks and very best wishes.

We come into this world programmed with few instructions, save for one paramount piece of code: Be curious. . .The only essential ingredient is a work environment that’s structured to encourage our innate drive to wonder, question, and explore. (Adam Steltzner, 2016, Project Manager for landing of Curiosity Rover on Mars, 6 August, 2012 and author, The Right Kind of Crazy— The True Story of Teamwork, Leadership and High Stakes Innovation)

INTRODUCTION

Flying home at 35,000 feet across the great plains of our Midwestern states, I asked myself this question, What have I learned from exploring Antarctica and from studying its history, geology, glaciology, literature and art?

As we flew past the Rocky Mountains and toward home here in New York City, I thought of some answers and jotted them down on one page of my journal.

As you will note from the Table of Contents that follows, most of what seemed important had to do with learning to make the most out of our lives: dreaming big, figuring out how to get what we want, solving hard problems, working with others in teams, thinking critically and using our imaginations to the fullest.

Some might say all these add up to becoming successful in life, being able to live life to its fullest, taking advantage of all opportunities we create.

Each chapter has a focus on one aspect of this journey—dreaming of our futures, figuring out how to avoid the pitfalls and crevasses along the way. Within each chapter I have identified what I consider to be the Life Lessons, the general principles derived either from others’ stories or from research on how our minds work. Here you will find Dr. Carol Dweck’s work called mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006) a substantial support for what we say. Her point is that we have control of our minds, how we think, and how our positive thoughts can have a huge impact on our success.

For example, we learn that we do not have to live with messages we hear from others or we might say to ourselves such as, I’m no good at athletics, or science or music. We can change how we talk to ourselves: I can get better at anything if I apply myself. . . I can succeed in baseball if I work hard enough, visualize success and learn from experts.

Our minds and the thoughts we have are not fixed, or written in stone. We can change our own attitudes about work and play.

Our success is just as much the result of how we think about our abilities as those abilities themselves.

But success isn’t what life is all about.

More significantly I hope the various chapters introduce new ways of looking at both our own lives and to persons who have a great deal to teach us.

Life is all about what we’re doing now—learning about ourselves and the world.

And enjoying it!

One of the best ways to get the most from what we are experiencing—in school, at home, out on a playing field, or on a job—is to follow the words of the mother of one of our most renowned scientists, Isidore I. Rabi, a nuclear physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1944 for his pioneering work on the characteristics of the electron.

Someone once asked Rabi how he became a scientist. He told this story:

My mother made me become a scientist without ever intending to do so. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn (NY) would ask their child upon returning from school, So, did you learn anything today? But not my mother. She asked a different question. Izzy, she said, did you ask a good question, today? That different—asking good questions—made me become a scientist.

I hope in reading any of these chapters you keep Izzy’s story in mind and that you will pose your own good questions about the lives of the explorers, astronauts, athletes and others portrayed here.

Being inquisitive, asking our own significant questions, can lead us to explore new and challenging territories and it will, undoubtedly, lead to many exciting and enriching discoveries.

I’d be very interested in learning what questions you do ask and are investigating. You can write me at: [e-mail].

With best wishes

John Barell

[e-mail]

www.morecuriousminds.com

New York, NY

September, 2016

PREFACE

Antarctic Adventures: Life Lesson from Polar Explorers is an inspiring case study of how the author, John Barell, achieved his dream to explore Antarctica by age fifty. At a young age while serving in the navy, John successfully implemented crucial career planning strategies to achieve his career goal. For example, John learned how to ask good questions to ensure that he would get the most out of life’s learning. Also family members encouraged him to pursue to his ambition. After John wrote a letter to the Admiral about his dreams as a seventh grade student, John and his family visited Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Through this partnership with Admiral Byrd, John received ongoing mentorship which included guidance on course selection, internships, and activities to pursue his dream.

John learned how to question, research options, and how to use a journal to reflect on the next steps necessary to achieving his dream. More specifically, John’s goal to sail to Antarctica by the time he was fifty was first described at the bottom of an old journal. The journal entry described the chart of Antarctica that he and his father had created and drew with some precision. The chart of Antarctica is now framed and hangs over John’s desk. It includes Admiral Byrd’s signature, Good work and Good Luck, Richard E. Byrd

The value of this book is observing how John overcame numerous obstacles to explore Antarctica using a self-reflective approach to critical thinking. John learned how to use a variety of references and resources to plot the many steps to achieve his dream. Each chapter in the book includes a variety of activities that the reader can use to further understand the natural wonders in Antarctica. By understanding John’s challenges, the reader can adapt John’s problem-solving strategies to achieve dreams and career goals. The reflective activities at the end of each chapter include the following:

• Asking problem-based learning questions to draw conclusions

• Reflecting on life’s lessons to understand what has been achieved to determine next steps

• Reflecting on John’s experiences in relation to reader’s prior learning experiences

• Creating a vision, journaling, taking actions, and asking questions to achieve a dream

As a parent educator, I assist teachers and parents in expanding their levels of learning with their children. For example, when reading basic level books about sea life in Antarctica, educators can extend learning by creating problem-based learning activities that expanded learning beyond a preschool and elementary school level to high school, college, and even graduate research levels. When reading a basic book about sea life, parents can support their children’s learning by asking clarification questions, sequencing questions, and comprehension questions. Additional questions can focus on comparing, contrasting, seeking causes, problem-solving, projecting consequences, imaging possibilities, creating new ideas, and evaluating results.

Activities that support the progression of critical thinking for preschoolers might include observations of sea life on how fish breathe under water compared to how a person can make bubbles like a fish by blowing bubbles in a swimming pool. Elementary and middle school students may research food chains that support different types of sea life. High school students might study the various environmental conditions that support different types of sea life. A college or graduate student might consider the impact of global warming or natural disasters on the extinction of endangered sea life. In addition to scientific research and explorations, students can apply the concepts learned in sea life to reflective research and writing assignments. Through statistical analysis at various levels of proficiency, students can research the impact of environmental conditions to support sea life. Social studies research can provide students with insight regarding the various types of sea life that exist in different oceans and rivers throughout the world. Visual and performing art projects might include recreations of sea life environments in different parts of the world using diorama displays and sculptures.

When considering the implications for achieving one’s dreams, students and young adults need advisors and mentors. Sometimes parents are unable to provide this support. Enlisting the support of community members, teachers, clergy, neighbors, and citizens to serve the mentorship needs of today’s youth and young adults promotes the development of an informed and capable workforce of citizens for future generations.

This book provides an approach for how parents and community mentors can guide and advocate success for all children regardless of their environmental challenges. The resiliency skills described throughout John’s story, the critical thinking reflective activities, and the problem-based survival strategies integrated throughout the book provide the holistic foundation for any child to achieve his or her dream.

In his book, John states that those who write down their goals and objectives achieve them. When applying this strategy in my own development from teacher to administrator to writer and publisher of a multi-generational parenting blog, I reflect on the lesson plans, syllabuses, grant proposals and finally, business plans, which propelled me from one stage of my career to the next. I also