MANTUA: When Natalie Harr looked in on her first-graders during their music instruction this week, she found them singing No Polar Bears in Antarctica.It’s not your traditional elementary school ditty, but an appropriate choice given that their teacher is heading off to the planet’s freezing underbelly.The students will sing their song at a Crestwood Primary School assembly Monday when they welcome Dr. Richard Lee Jr., an Antarctic researcher who invited Harr to join his team for a five-week expedition.Lee, a professor of zoology at Miami University in Ohio, is making his seventh trip to study a wingless fly called the Belgica Antarctica, the world’s southernmost insect whose adults are the size of a pencil tip.Scientists hope the bug, which can tolerate freezing, dehydration and lack of oxygen, will give up its secrets for better preservation of transplant organs.Harr will share her journey with all students in the Crestwood district, the community at large, and young science students around the country through a special Website, daily blogging and even an occasional video conference.She and Lee will be joined by three more scientists from Miami University and Ohio State, leaving the day after Christmas. They will take several flights to the tip of Chile, where they will board an ice breaker for a four-day sail through the famed Drake Passage.They’ll settle in at Palmer Station, the smallest of three bases maintained by the National Science Foundation in Antarctica.The expedition’s chief goal is to collect the fly on the islands in the area, taking advantage of a season that provides up to 20 hours of light a day, then return with the bugs in February for further study at home.Dr. Lee will be in Mantua for a student “send off” assembly at 2 p.m. Monday.Then at 7 p.m., parents and the public are invited to hear him talk about his research. The school is at 11260 Bowen Road.On Tuesday, Lee will visit Twinsburg City Schools, Kent City Schools and Hiram College.Meanwhile, Harr is spreading the word to teachers she networks with around the country so their students can also follow her adventure.Locally, the Crestwood school district is planning several activities to celebrate Harr’s trip. Each of the four school buildings will attempt to cumulatively walk 8,000 miles, the distance to Antarctica; read and watch relevant books and movies, like Mr. Popper’s Penguins; and host a Science and Technology Night after Harr’s return so students can show case their own projects.While her students may find her trip to Antarctica to be a bit extreme, they are no strangers to wildlife research themselves.Outside Crestwood is a wetlands, which serves as a science lab for K-3 students to study the flora and fauna.The school’s focus on science “is mostly because of the interest by the teachers,” Principal Beth Trivelli acknowledged.No less than 13 other Crestwood Primary teachers have taken the same nature science training in Wyoming that introduced Harr to Lee.It was also the program that motivated Harr to pursue a master’s degree in biology, which she completed in 2009 on a full scholarship at Miami University.“How many primary teachers have a master’s in biology?” asked the obviously proud principal Trivelli.For Harr, Antarctica is another step in a life that has always been nature-centric.“I started early,” she said. “I grew up on a dairy farm in southeast Ohio.”She earned her early childhood education degree from Kent State University, and has been teaching at Crestwood for eight years.Still, while Harr was comfortable teaching her students reading, writing and arithmetic, it was challenging trying to connect with them in science.Her extracurricular activities have taught her how to share her love of nature with her students, and her upcoming trip is one more way to demonstrate what modern scientists do and “help make science relevant to kids,” she said.Harr is the first elementary school teacher to make the trip with Lee. The entire project is funded through the National Science Foundation.To follow Harr’s journey when it begins later this month, visit http://www.crestwoodexplorestheworld.org.Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.