Expedition Greenhouse-world

Expedition Greenhouse-world is the winner of the Academic Year Prize 2007. This prize is for the best translation of scientific research for a wide audience. In 2007, this prize was won by the Palaeoclimatology Department of the University of Utrecht. We are providing advice and support in the development and implementation of the programme 'Expedition to the greenhouse world of the future with paleoclimatologists’.

The project will take secondary school pupils on a virtual journey to the climate of 55 million years ago, and make them aware of the consequences of climate change. An explanation is given of how palaeoclimatologists are studying that era’s greenhouse effect and are extracting information from the archive of the Earth and interpreting it for the future.

The teaching material consists of a DVD with clips and a website with interactive applications. This enables pupils themselves to virtually analyse drill cores, which show that the North Pole was subtropical and warm 55 million years ago. The pupils are also challenged in a competition to give their own vision about climate change by means of a short film, and to paint a picture of what the climate will look like in the Netherlands in 2508. The pupils who make the best film will be allowed to join an expedition to Spitsbergen.

You can find more information at www.expeditiebroeikaswereld.nl (Dutch)