Justin Moodie Selected for Trip to Antartica

Justin Moodie Selected for Trip to Antartica

May 10, 2023

Justin Moodie is one of many OHS faculty who have received awards from the OHS Foundation Faculty Grant program… look at this exciting news about his most recent adventure! 

In February, Moodie was one of a few educators to embark on a 16-day excursion across Antarctica through the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship program, a professional development opportunity for educators in partnership with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Society. The once-in-a-lifetime trek resulted from Moodie’s teaching framework expanding to encompass global issues in the classroom.

Teaching photography in the Career Technical Education Pathway at Oceanside High School, Moodie’s classes often take off-campus field trips for students to shoot photos in an urban landscape. But beyond exploring the local world, Moodie began incorporating polar science into his curriculum.

Moodie had previously enrolled in the National Geographic Educator Certification course, a free online resource to help teachers expand the scope of their curriculums to include storytelling, global citizenship and activism — all concepts that Moodie was already applying to the classroom. And Moodie’s curriculum was precisely what the fellowship was looking for.  

Moodie traveled aboard the National Geographic Explorer passenger vessel through the Drake Passage, a tempestuous body of water where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans converge between South America and Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands. Once they arrived in the Antarctic Peninsula, Moodie and the exploration team embarked each day onto a new beach – a thrilling experience by itself each time. Upon his return to the classroom, Moodie shared his experiences in Antarctica with students, faculty and just about anyone interested in his travels. As part of the fellowship, he is now responsible for conducting programming tied to the trip in his curriculum that he can share with National Geographic to demonstrate how his experience provided a learning lesson.

Moodie believes that every class should be teaching issues related to the climate.

Congratulations Justin and OHS!