Remy Rodden is off to the Antarctic.

The Whitehorse musician and environmental educator has been invited to serve as one of the teaching staff to assist with the 65 international students on 16-day journey beginning on Boxing Day.

Students on Ice was initiated 10 years ago to provide youth with an opportunity to expand their awareness of the Antarctic and Arctic, to get a better understanding of the two polar regions, and how they may be affected by climate change.

Rodden has spent the last 20 years as the environmental educator with Environment Yukon, and works closely with the Yukon government's Climate Change Secretariat.

"Basically, they asked me to come with a mixed bag of tricks, to be available to do some music, write some songs and work with the kids on environmental literacy and creative thinking,” he told the Star this week.

It's summer down under right now, and Rodden said the temperature may dip to below zero only at night, so he's not packing his parka.

"But they did tell me to bring rubber boots.”

He will leave Toronto on Boxing Day to meet up in Miami and then Santiago, Chile with other staff, and the students from nine countries.

From Santiago, they will fly to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, where they'll board the SOI Polar Ambassador.

"As we cross the Drake Passage en route to Antarctica, the team will participate in workshops, lectures and will be out on deck, spotting whales and sea birds,” reads the itinerary for Dec. 31.

Students on Ice, Rodden assures, is very aware of the environmental cost of fuelling its expeditions, and does take steps to offset all the carbon.

"It's one those things ... that may be benefit in the future,” he says. "They may save the planet some day.”

Students pay $12,500 for the odyssey, which, in the case of Canadian students, includes air travel and everything else from Toronto and back.

Students on Ice, which is supported by several national and international businesses and organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, is picking up Rodden's expenses from Toronto, and Environment Yukon is paying for his costs to get out east.

"So I guess the department sees a value in this,” he says, suggesting the experience will be a two-way street: him sharing what he brings while gaining from the experience of other educators, and hearing what students from around the world have on their mind when it comes to the environment and climate change.

"These things I can pass on to the Yukon through our programs, and to our staff, as well as to our youth,” he says. "It's that type of multiplier effect.”

"Really, I just want to learn as much as I can about the Antarctic, and about climate change and work with the youth and develop youth leadership.”

Many of the students on these trips are dedicated and raise their own money, or have jobs to at least contribute, he explains.

Rodden says on one trip he knows of, there were two students from New York's inner-city who had likely never set foot outside the Big Apple, but were able to make the trip on the goodwill of a local sponsor.

"Our mandate is to educate and inspire the next generation of polar scientists, researchers, and environmental leaders – and in doing so, help to provide them with a greater understanding and respect for the planet,” reads a brochure explaining Students on Ice.

"We believe that the Polar Regions are the world's greatest classrooms. They are the cornerstones of the global ecosystem and a tremendous platform for education.”

Rodden says he knows of two other Yukoners who've made the Antarctic trip as instructors:

• Tyler Kuhn, who works for Environment Yukon as a wildlife technician and is just finishing his masters degree in paleontology with a focus on the ancient caribou of the Yukon; and

• Amber Church, who is finishing up her masters in glaciology and who is currently in Copenhagen as the head of Canada's Canadian Youth Coalition.

John Streicker, a local environmental scientist and activist, has been a teacher on a number of excursions to the Arctic with Students on Ice.

Since serving as a chaperone with a minor teaching role in the Antarctic five years ago, the 29-year-old Kuhn has also been an instructor on a couple of the Arctic journeys.

He said the Antarctic jaunt provided him with a life experience he won't forget.

A certain power comes from a visit to an environment where humans are not the dominant species, and where the environment belongs to somebody else.

It's an experience you just don't encounter everyday, he said.

"That, in terms of my impression of the Antarctic, is one that is still with me right now.”

He saw the same in the eyes of the students he was with.

"One girl from the inner-city of New York turned to Amber and said ‘Well, I have never heard silence before,'” Kuhn says of the moments after the ship's engines were turned off and those aboard just sat in quiet awe.

"All you could hear was the ice moving and cracking . . . kind of the power of taking humans out of their environment.”

Rodden is excited, more and more everyday.

He was invited to go along last April, though plans were not confirmed until just last month.

The local environmental educator met the founder of the Students on Ice, renowned polar explorer Geoff Green, back in 2006 while he was involved in the early planning exercises for the International Polar Year.

They started chatting and they just hit if off, says Rodden.

"It is a trip of a lifetime, for so many people,” he says. "I feel pretty blessed.”