Penguin Science, the educational DVD will take audiences on a virtual journey to Antarctica to explore penguin biology, polar ecology, and evidence of accelerating climate change.

The films March of the Penguins and Happy Feet confirmed the celebrity status of these creatures, but penguins are facing more than just leopard seals, skuas, and harsh winter weather. Scientists in Antarctica have discovered that penguins are also coping with rapid and unprecedented climate change. In the last decade, retreating glaciers, fracturing ice shelves, giant icebergs, increased snowfall, and disappearing sea ice have thrown penguin populations into disarray.

Amid Antarctica’s spectacular Adélie penguin breeding colonies (“penguin cities”) leading researchers David Ainley, Grant Ballard, and their colleagues share their latest investigations into how the birds are responding to and coping with a sudden rise in temperature and what that may mean for polar environments and ultimately for the planet.

Students will see how researchers carefully monitor penguins with an array of high tech equipment. We will see how microchips and satellite tags have made the Adélie Penguin one of the world’s best-studied birds and a harbinger of environmental change.

Both the DVD and website are aligned with National Science Standards and packaged for use as a supplement to elementary, middle and upper school science curricula.

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, this 40-minute DVD (in 4 chapters) was recorded in stunning HD video on location in Southern Antarctica.