One lucky pupil from St Conleth's College, Dublin and another from Banbridge High School will witness climate change first-hand by participating in an expedition to the Arctic in September 2008. The school has just won an all Ireland Cape Farewell Local to Global Video competition.

Schools have been using their video and editing skills over the past few weeks preparing their entries for the video competition organised by the British Council and the European Commission.

St Conleth’s College, Dublin and Banbridge High School (winner for Northern Ireland) will now form ‘Ground Crews’ of 5-6 pupils who will develop a range of climate change projects and events for their schools and communities. Ultimately, two lucky explorers, one from each of the winning schools, will be chosen to take part in an international expedition from Iceland to Greenland and Baffin Island in co-operation with the Cape Farewell Arctic Voyage programme. On the expedition they will join leading international scientists and artists and work in close collaboration with their winning school on a meaningful curriculum project.  The voyage aims to demonstrate the communicative potential of crossing borders between arts, sciences and different cultures.

Cape Farewell Arctic Voyage 2008 is an innovative arts and science project focused on climate change.  Workshops, resources and support will be provided to the winning schools. St Conleth’s College and Banbridge High School will work with schools from Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Brazil and Mexico as they prepare for the Arctic Voyage.

This competition has been organised and sponsored by the British Council and the European Commission.  The EU is currently considering what more needs to be done to tackle global warming and boost renewable energy use. The competition seeks to stimulate discussion and debate in schools about climate change and how we can get involved locally and make an impact globally.

More about the competition and the prize:

Schools from across Ireland and Northern Ireland were invited to submit a 2-3 minute video which presented innovative ways of reducing their carbon footprint by taking action in schools and/or local communities. The purpose of the short video was to encourage other people from the wider school/community to get involved in tackling climate change by acting locally.

Congratulations also to the two runner up schools, Our Lady’s Grammar School, Newry, Northern Ireland and Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, Ireland, for their excellent videos.

•Every voyageur will represent not just herself or himself, but a school, and a group of engaged supporters within the school which we call the ‘Ground Crew’. The voyage serves individual development, but by drawing on the schools’ creativity in designing and implementing a project along the frontiers of art and science, it also serves education.

•Voyageurs will be given media training and will both blog and webcast live to their home schools and to a wider public.

•The expedition will, provisionally, depart from Reykjavik (Iceland) on September 7th, rounding Cape Farewell on the southern tip of Greenland and arriving at Pond Inlet (Baffin Island) on September 20th. See map below for itinerary.

•Who will be aboard? The ship’s company will consist of 28 students, aged 15-17; and 17 adult mentors, scientists, educators and staff. In addition the ship’s master and crew of 30, including a doctor, are active members of the expedition, and highly experienced in Arctic voyages. The children will come from Canada (13), Great Britain (7), Germany (2), Ireland (1), Northern Ireland (1), Mexico (2) and Brazil (2).

•What is the ship? The ship is MV Academik Shokalskiy (above), a Russian research vessel built in 1983 and modernized to high standards of safety, accommodation, food preparation and other services. The ship is small, nimble, and ice-strengthened capable of reaching the nooks and crannies that many larger ships cannot. She is the perfect vessel for research and play, equipped with a lecture hall, library, lounge, sauna, open bridge, kayaks and zodiacs. She spends her summers sailing the Arctic and winters in Antarctica.

•Who is responsible? The voyage is organised by two partners: the British Council, the United Kingdom’s principal agency for cultural relations, from its office in Ottawa; and the Cape Farewell Project, a London-based project which focuses on the communication of climate change issues through art and science – and in particular through seeking out the intuitive and artistic communication of science.

•There are no costs for the pupils participating. They will be selected in collaboration with their schools, and for those selected, all costs will be met from their homes to Toronto (for training and launch) and on to Reykjavik to pick up the ship; they will then return home at the project’s expense.

•Safety is paramount. The whole company will be trained before departure (in Toronto) in how to operate safely in the Arctic; the ship’s crew is well qualified; and all necessary insurances (including medical evacuation) will be handled by the organisers.

For more information contact Liz McBain in Belfast or Beth Edgell in Dublin