For a teacher who has lived most of her life in Alaska, Antarctica is a cold but inviting place. “This trip is the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” said Joanna Hubbard, a seventh-grade teacher from Hanshew Middle School in Anchorage. “It will be an incredible experience to travel to Antarctica as a research team member and educator rather than a tourist.”

Hubbard is traveling to the southernmost continent as part of the National Science Foundation-funded TEA (Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic) program designed to turn the rich bio-diversity in the world’s coldest places into a valuable educational resource for students and others who visit their Web sites. Hubbard, 26, is a team teacher responsible for educating 120 seventh-graders.

“I am looking forward to corresponding with students and teachers from around the country, helping to bring Antarctic science into the classroom,” she said.

The Antarctic trip also is an extension of her interest in traveling and in a scientific bent she developed as a student at Dartmouth College. “I have always been very interested in nature and wildlife. Biology was a natural subject to go into.”

In preparation for the trip, she has been diving and swimming several times a week, but fitness and outdoor activities are already a focus in her life. She enjoys cross country skiing, hiking, and white water rafting, and plays volleyball, basketball and ultimate Frisbee. She also enjoys bird banding and birding, although the birds she is likely to see most in Antarctica are penguins.