Classroom Into the Ice
Have you ever been to the Antarctic? Well, around 120 pupils from a school in Kiel just had the chance to virtually come onboard the Malizia Explorer for an hour, as the team of scientists, sailors, and photographers answered their most burning questions while sailing through Antarctic waters on their way to the Danger Islands for a scientific research mission.
Team Malizia’s My Ocean Challenge is an educational programme dedicated to teaching children around the world about the Ocean, its role in climate change, and inspiring hope and action. Over the years, the team has hosted numerous events with schoolchildren discussing the Ocean’s significance, the need for Ocean science, and invited sailors to join live sessions from somewhere in the middle of the Ocean while racing offshore around the world.Since 2025, however, the team has not only focused on being the fastest boat to reach the finish line; they also operate a second vessel entirely dedicated to science and collecting data from understudied regions around the world: the Malizia Explorer.
The Malizia Explorer is currently on her first major mission to Antarctica. Onboard are a crew of sailors, scientists from German research institutes, and media representatives, all taking part in a month-long expedition to the Danger Islands. Their goal is to study the Adélie penguins colonies and lay the groundwork to extend an already existing protected area from the land to the sea (read more about the mission here).
On the 27th of November 2025, as they were navigating among drifting ice floes on their way to the Danger Islands, offshore racer Boris Herrmann, AWI scientist Dr. Simeon Lisovski, and National Geographic photographer and science communicator Esther Horvath connected via video call with 120 pupils from the Max-Plank School in Kiel, Germany. Separated by 14.000 km kilometers yet all fascinated by this last wilderness, the team and pupils discussed life onboard, their first landing on Antarctic land a few days prior, how they study penguins, and what political steps need to be taken to protect the area.
The scientific and political aspects of this mission were discussed during the live call with the students by sailor Boris Herrmann, AWI scientist Dr. Simeon Lisovski, and National Geographic photographer and science communicator Esther Horvath, all of whom were on board the Malizia Explorer.
“I feel as if we’re arriving in an entirely different world”, described Boris Herrmann in the event moderated by the team’s education and communication officer Remy Johannsen.
“At first we were on King George Island with its many research stations, and there you still feel like you’re in civilization. But yesterday we truly ventured inward for the first time and sailed to Joinville Island, staying in Ambush Bay. Experts told us that we may be only the third ship ever to have been there.”
He went on to share how the adventure of this mission crystallised in a single moment, standing on an icy mountain when one of the scientists exclaimed:“Welcome up here on the mountain. We might be the first humans ever to have stood in this place.”
Very few people will ever have the chance to go to Antarctica, and being able to show this wilderness to children around the world and helping them value it intrinsically, creates a connection and fosters care towards a remote place whose health influences life across the planet and is affected in turn heavily by our actions.
“The landscape looks incredible, like the surface of the moon”, Boris added “The water is crystal clear; you can see 10 to 15 meters down to the bottom. Penguins are waddling around and diving for food in the water. You can see all the way to the seabed.”
Bringing this extraordinary region to life for a global audience is, among others, Esther Horvath, whose work as a photographer and science communicator helps the mission transcend the scientific realm and reach the wider world. Beyond documenting the expedition, Esther stands as a symbol of following one’s dreams, showing how passion can take you places… even to Antarctica. Explaining to the 17 year old students the immense privilege of witnessing this environment, she also saw it as her duty to share as many insights as possible, as she explained that we only “protect what we care for”.
Providing scientific insight during the call and adhering to the notion that you “cannot manage what you do not measure” was Dr. Simeon Lisovski, an ecologist from the Alfred Wegener Institute who studies migration and disease dynamics in polar bird species.
He explained his methods (tracking and sampling), how difficult it is to catch a penguin (it is not), and highlighted that penguins spend up to 80% of their lives at sea, coming on land only to mate and nest. Using trackers, he hopes to identify the penguins’ feeding grounds and pinpoint the areas most vital for their survival. As the Danger Islands are currently protected mainly for the penguins themselves, these findings could demonstrate that effective conservation is incomplete without marine protection.
The students also had the chance to ask the crew their own questions. These ranged from curiosity about daily life on board living and working together as a team of 14 in very close quarters to the big, fundamental issues of our time, such as: “How can we make sure that preserving the foundations of life for all of us finally becomes more important than short-term profit for a few?”
The whole event could have gone on for much longer, with many eager questions being asked and answered from Germany to Antarctica, however the impending arrival to the Danger Islands concluded the call after a good hour.
As Boris summarised: “Now we’re winding our way even deeper into the Antarctic ice jungle, occasionally crashing into drifting ice floes. It’s definitely a great adventure and a completely new and unfamiliar world to me.” And now, 120 students have had the chance to learn just a bit more about this extraordinary place.
Watch the replay of the event (in German with English subtitles) here:
