Since 1995, when Hellmers began using Timothy Bear to make geography more meaningful for her students, the bear has traveled the world. He’s visited six continents, traveling by everything from plane to camel. Hellmers plans to use McClintock’s expedition as a jumping off point for a Social Studies unit on Antarctica. She will incorporate books, videos, maps and Internet resources and integrate writing and reading skills to teach her students about research, science careers, marine life and the weather.

Like Timothy Bear, Tuffy the dog has been around, traveling to every continent except Antarctica – until now. Tuffy is a part of the Cruising Critters program at Fairhope Intermediate School, which regularly sends assorted Beanie Babyä animals on trips to far-off locales armed with a passport, a journal, and a disposable camera used by their human hosts to document their adventures. Tuffy, representing teacher Gay Crane’s fourth-graders, is going to Antarctica to establish a scientific connection for those students as well as the kindergartners and first-graders at the Fairhope K1 Center, said science enrichment teacher Charlene Dindo.

For several years, Antarctic scientists from Dauphin Island Sea Lab have been corresponding with the Fairhope K-1 students and then visiting them upon their return to the United States. The scientists have shown the students slides and equipment and talked about their adventures. This year, the kindergarten, first- and fourth-grade students are sharing Tuffy and learning lessons in Antarctic science, Dindo said.