The Darwin Centre was very pleased to have organised its most successful Schools Christmas Lecture to date.
Over 350 people attended the event at the Merlin Theatre, on December 19, presented by Dr. Simon Boxall, of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Dr. Boxall, fresh from an early winter expedition to the high Arctic, brought with him materials, data and footage of his trip. The expedition on board a 100-year-old schooner was filmed by the Discovery Channel and West Wales secondary schools had a preview of exciting footage of the adventure.
Part of the trip was used to deposit buoys (pictured) which transmit temperature data back to a globally shared databank, demonstrating the global effort now being afforded to 'Climate Change'.
Usually a lecture just for schools, the Darwin Christmas Lecture stirred up so much interest among parents and Friends of the Darwin Centre, that Dr. Boxall very kindly agreed to give two lectures, allowing around 100 members of the public to enjoy his presentation. Obviously a topic of our age, this 'Climate Change' lecture really brought relevant cutting edge science to schools in West Wales, all of which involved acknowledged the pertinence of Dr. Boxall's talk and the efforts of the Darwin Centre to the current secondary school curriculum.
Project co-ordinator Marten Lewis would like to thank Dr. Boxall and the National Oceanography Centre for their continued support of science education in West Wales.
Whether Santa's Grotto will be ice or water in 2070 still remains to be seen, but Dr. Boxall assured the audience that if the world continues to produce carbon dioxide at its current rate, then Santa could be pretty wet in the not too distant future. The schools involved were Ysgol y Preseli, Greenhill, Milford Haven, Dyffryn Taf and Sir Thomas Picton, as well as home education groups. The Darwin Centre can be contacted via http://www.darwincentre.com">www.darwincentre.com.