The Princess Elisabeth Station as a Classroom Project
Mathieu Tacq in his 6th grade classroom
© International Polar Foundation
Mathieu Tacq is a 6th grade student at the Petite Ecole Libre de Gentinnes. For his end-of-year classroom project, Mathieu has chosen to introduce his classmates to the wonders of the Princess Elisabeth Station. Turning to the International Polar Foundation for documentation and illustrations of the Station, Mathieu has chosen to pursue his dream all the way through and to build a scaled mock-up of the Station to illustrate his talk.
Mathieu's father (Bruno Tacq) is just as fascinated by the Princess Elisabeth Station as his son. Although Bruno was unable to fulfill his aspiration of contributing to the Station's construction in Antarctica, Mathieu is working hard to bring his own dream to reality.
Through the classroom project "Cap'ten" (short for "Captain of the project"), students are asked to be enterprising and to make use of various competences: autonomy, perseverance and creativity. Mathieu has indeed shown his ability to mobilize all three of these characteristics during the course of his project and has collaborated with his father to bring the mock-up of the Station's interior to life.Mathieu's mock-up has been built at a scale of 1/50, measuring 2.5 m x 1 m.
In order to make traveling easier, Mathieu and his father have broken the mock-up down into 4 separate modules: the two central modules represent the tower, the Station and the garages, and the two other modules are the outsider environment and first wind turbine. Each module can be detached laterally so as to reveal the interior of each visible part. Mathieu and his father are also quite meticulous: they are currently looking for the most appropriate material from which to make the photovoltaic solar panels out of.
So, is Mathieu a good or bad captain? Will he be able to lead his project to the end? Stay tuned on this website, we will soon find out how Mathieu's classroom presentation actually went. One thing is sure; he has chosen a challenging project!
