This year the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg plans to open a polar school for high school and university students.

According to the institute’s director, Alexander Makarov, the school will offer regular classes, and the curriculum will include a wide range of subjects, from the geography of polar countries to ice navigation qualities of ships.

“The polar school will help provide early career and specialization guidance for high schoolers in grades 9-11, as well as university students studying polar regions of the planet, and promote interest in scientific professions. Classes will be held regularly,” he said.

In addition to classes with outstanding Arctic researchers, school students will also have the opportunity to pilot a ship in the institute’s experimental ice basin and touch a 400,000-year-old ice core from the very heart of Antarctica. There are plans for the students to participate in the work of the AARI Ladoga field base and spend their summer oceanological training on Lake Ladoga.

Today the institute is preparing to enroll young students. According to AARI Director Alexander Makarov, about five secondary schools are already involved in the project, and their list will expand.