Study Abroad

Physics Department Chair Terry Flower, Ph.D., is using the real world labs of Argentina, Costa Rica and Antarctica to study global warming, rain forests and penguins and has sent us updates and photos.

Jan. 5... I have the most wonderful group of students. This makes my job easy! They are really great (that should be with a capitol G) kids!

Terry Flower and students in Buenos Aires.

Our group escaped the bitter cold of Minnesota and headed south for J-Term. How far south?? For us we basically are going "all the way"—to Antarctica. To ensure we did not have travel problems due to the weather we planned a stop in Buenos Aires enroute to the land of penguins and whales.

Buenos Aires is a great cosmopolitan city. Amazing how many people live here. It is not only warm here (downright balmy!!) as we begin our studies of climate change, but the people are so pleasant and tolerate our broken Spanish. The big thing here is the Tango, almost everywhere you go. And the food is fantastic!

Tomorrow we fly to Ushuaia (pronounced "Ush-why-a") the southern most city in the world, aptly named "fin del mundo." There we board the Norwegian ice breaker, MS Fram, and begin our crossing of the Drake Passage. Here are the roughest oceans on Earth. The Drake Passage has such wild seas — "rockin and rollin" — because the frigid waters of the Antarctic mix with the warm waters of the Pacific and Atlantic ultimately becoming part of the Ocean Conveyor, a significant contributor to our climate.

We'll send more from the MS Fram as we are able, based on our satellite internet connection.

Terry Flower