June 21,2010
This is what our work area looked like on our first day in the field. It sure was easy to locate the seedlings when we know they were in a straight line spaced about 1 meter apart. As the expedition progressed the sites to sample seedlings became increasingly more difficult.

What our work area looks like.

June 29,2010
This morning Pete and Carley drove us to the airport site. After we parked the van and trekked into the fen and palsa we arrived at our last site from which to collect data. The fen site is pictured and was wet--it reminded me of walking on a trampoline or wet sponge. I snagged my rain pants on a branch and ripped a large hole in them. I'm thankful they ripped on the last day and not the first. Believe it or not we found a total of 6 seedlings in our 4 random plots.

Did I see any interesting plants or animals?

Beluga whales, snow geese, Canada geese, Least Bittern, Ptarmigan, fox, Arctic hare, pipet, Bonaparte gulls, robins, white headed sparrows, golden eagles, wolf, ring seals, harbor seals, Huskie dogs, an assortment of tundra wildflowers, and many types of lichen including reindeer lichen.

What am I most excited to share with others when I return home?

One of the most exciting experiences is seeing and climbing on the ice floes. Seeing them reminds me how obscure some concepts can be for my students. I know my students and I studied polar ice formations but nothing beats direct experience!

What am I still wondering about?

Every day one member of our team asks, "How were we selected to be here?" None of us can answer that. Whatever the reason, I am thankful for this once in a lifetime experience. My big challenge is how to instill this sense of excitement in my students.

My team members

This is actually a picture of some of us preparing for our first day in the field. Little did we realize that these clothes would become our uniforms. The weather varied from the thirties to the sixties-all in a matter of two hours. Dressing in layers was definitely the key. We also soon discovered that boots and rain gear were often required even on the sunniest days--we never knew when we would need to lay on the wet peatland or in the fen to photograph a larch, white spruce, or black spruce sapling. The team works well together--every meal, morning coffee wake up session, and afternoon blogging session echoes with laughter and teasing. Even as we look forward to returning home, the end is bittersweet. The group generously helps each other. Individual personalities blend to create a unique humorous atmosphere every where we are. We laugh even while standing in the muck paste our ankles.

Surprises of the tundra

The top six things that surprised me about the Arctic tundra (in no particular order):
1. how flat the landscape is
2. the amount of water in the landscape
3. the size and density of the mosquitos
4. the amount of ice on the Hudson Bay
5. bear bars on the windows of the Churchill Northern Studies Center
6. the age(between 100 and 150 years) of the trees that do not look very large

On an ice floe on the shore of Hudson Bay

I know the picture is small but this is one of my favorites.
We climbed on to an ice floe for a photo op because we thought we may never get a chance to do it again. Little did we know that about 45 minutes later all 11 of us climbed onto another one for a group photo. After we climbed down and were walking away we heard it crash into about six large pieces--and scared each one of us.

On an ice floe on the shore of Hudson Bay

June 25,2010 Friday Our day off

Like the wolf, we travel in packs as evidenced on our day off. All 11 of us boarded a school bus with Sheldon our tour guide for a nature tour of Churchill. Our first stop was "Bird Cove" on the shore of Hudson Bay overlooking the Ithaca, a ship that grounded in 1969. We spotted different species of a pair of pipets, Bonaparte gulls, tundra geese, Canada geese, White Crowned sparrows, lichen, and plants. Sheldon explained that the Tundra geese are unwelcomed because they eat the entire plant, including the root, which destroys the ground cover and food supply of other species dependent upon those plants. Sheldon also drove us to the most likely locations to spot a polar bear but none were sighted although his efforts are greatly appreciated. Many ring seals,harbor seals, and beluga whales were spotted while climbing on the rocks at Cape Merry. Around 2:30 Sheldon had enough of us and left us on our own in town--one main street, 3 gift shops, one restaurant, a community center which includes the school, the hospital, nursing home, and curling rink; a liquor store, bank, and post office. Pete met us at Gypsy's, the restaurant, and delivered us to the dock to load the zodiaks for our beluga whale watch.
Our group was divided for the first time all week because the zodiaks held 6 people each. We doubted the mentality of our guide when he drove the boat onto an ice floe in the Hudson Bay. We unloaded onto the ice floe for another group photo, because we had not taken our quota of 7 per day yet. Never in one million years did I think I would be standing on an ice floe in the Hudson Bay!

Sampling Seedlings

June 24,2010

Thursday
Began with the usual briefing by Pete. He reminded us to label our coordinates on teh GPS systems--two groups had not done that properly--one of which was group 2, Sheryl, Kevin, and myself. It was raining in the morning so we stayed at the CNSC to make another photo board, download pictures, and correct the GPS mishaps.
Pete provides information on every plant, animal, and landform we see--either out in the field, at meals, in casual conversation, or during his morning and evening classroom sessions. It's information overload so I am counting on copies of hipresentations that he promised us. The mosquitoes get bigger and more numerous every day. Kevin resorted to wearing his bug shirt over his bug hat. We spent the remainder of the day sampling seedlings--of which we did not find many but it takes a long time searching because the ones we did find were less than 2 cm tall. It's quite the challenge to photograph the ones that grow in a crevice in the ground or surrounded by reindeer lichen or rhododendron (questionable spelling).

June 23,2010

5:00 woke up to make sure the plumbing functioned properly. Too early to stay up so I’ll just lay here awhile.
6:00 beep beep beep Thank you Cathy for providing an alarm clock for the room. Tweet tweet tweet Thank you Angela for not trusting Cathy’s alarm clock and providing us with a back up alarm.
6:15 out of the shower and headed for the first “don’t talk to me yet” cup of coffee
6:30 There’s a few early risers up having coffee and giggling—must be Earthwatchers because there’s a lot of laughter with this group.—especially after the caffeine kicks in.
7:00 invigorating morning session with “Patience of a Saint Pete” so he can inform us again what we are to do and what to look for. He’s actually sending us in the different sites to collect data about seedlings. (One of us must have exhibited enthusiasm about getting personally acquainted with so many in the plantation). Angela declared the Rule of the day, “No Laughing”
7:30 breakfast Why am I always so hungry here?
8:15 start layering on all the clothes that were in my suitcase before heading out.
8:20 still layering
8:25 wouldn’t you know it—have to do a quality check of the building’s plumbing
8:30 finally dressed and ready to leave for another adventure in the great north with Pete and Carley as our guides , mentors, drivers, protectors, life lines.
Shortly after 8:30-around 12:30 At the first of today’s 4 sites I knew it was going to be an interesting day when our first marker splashed as it landed. Our muck boots became our best friends at the first site (or so we thought) and our bug hats became our second best friends at the third site. Believe it or not we were able to almost complete 3 sites before lunch.
12:30 lunch Again, I am so hungry.
Sometime after lunch-(Kevin did not stress the time telling portion at his school) start putting on all those layers again and climb back into the van to finish the third site—darn we found 5 seedlings rooted in. Then it was off to what I think was the highlight of everyone’s day—the wettest, boot grabbing, treeless, seedling-less (Yes!) place this side of Tennessee—the fen! Here our boots overtook the bug gear as our best friends. We arrived back “home” before 4:30 –proof positive that we’re getting efficient at data collecting.
16:30- showering, jogging, blogging, e-mailing, down loading data and pictures, laughing (sorry, we did not fare well with that rule of the day), even laundering----we are a talented group!
18:15 dinner Hunger does not leave me. Pete told me not to forget to mention the stickleback. Oh yeah—we saw a stickleback! Actually you’d think we discovered some rare species. Remind me again why we silent seedling counters are not seeing more wildlife in these quiet woods?
After dinner—19:30--the duck talk

Churchill Northern Studies Center

June 22,2010 Tuesday

Spent all day out in the field measuring seedlings. Kevin, Sheryl, and I must have collected data from at least 50! The morning was chilly--in the 40's--cloudy and breezy. After lunch it was sunny and warmer--lower 50's maybe--still wore one short sleeve shirt, one long sleeve shirt, a sweat shirt, a hoody with the hood up, a rain coat with the hood up, the never leave home without it bug shirt with the hood up, two pairs of socks, long pants, rain pants, boots, and gloves. Lisa and I had KP today which entailed washing our group's dishes after each meal. Easy work and the warm water was welcomed after a cold morning of work. Tomorrow's work will be a bit more involved because it will entail identifying the tree species and its geographic location.

Our polar bear deterent

Our first attempt to collect data

measuring height of seedlings

June 21,2010 First full day in Churchill

We had a 7:00 meeting with Peter so he could begin to explain what he expected of us in the field. Basically we measure tree growth by measuring height, trunk diameter, crown diameter, number and length of branches, and number of seeds. It rained this morning but cleared in the afternoon so we were able to collect data for about 3 hours. Our time in the field was extended slightly because the van we rode in would not start. I was very thankful for my rain pants because the seedlings are small, less than 15 cm, and the ground is wet! A wind was blowing which kept the bugs away but I still wore my bug gear just in case.
Definitely needed to dress in layers--t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt, hooded sweatshirt, then bug shirt. One of my boots fit well, while the other was 3 sizes too small. Thank goodness the CNSC has many extra pairs on hand. We have about two hours before dinner to download our data, photos, and complete our journal entries. Tonight's solstice bonfire has been cancelled because of the wet weather but I am certain we will find some other way to keep entertained.

How I got here

June 20,2010
Not a typical Father's day...I left Rockford on the 6:00 bus to O'Hare airport in Chicago and took the 9:40 flight to Winnipeg. I met two fellow Earthwatchers, Julie and Cathy, while retrieving my luggage in Winnipeg. We them met 8 other Earthwatchers while waiting for the 14:30 flight to Churchill. That plane sat 24 people and took about three hours. I think we flew over a total of one road and 300,00 small bodies of water. The landscape was flat with no signs of humans except for the occasional glimpse of the railroad track. There are no roads to Churchill, the only options for travelling there are train, plane, or boat.
The Northern Studies Research Center (NSRC) is about 18 Km from the airport--not hard to find-- just follow the road to the end. The building has bear bars on all windows and no one is to venture outside alone. Five of us, Cathy, Julie, James, Lisa, and myself walked around the perimeter of the building. We did not see any signs of bear but did see an Arctic Hare about the size of a small dog. The bugs chased us back inside.
Tonight is the shortest night of the year so I expect about 23.5 hours of daylight. Peter Kershaw will provide an introduction to our expedition and tomorrow we will be out in the field.

Getting to Churchill

Getting ready for Churchill

I am trying to transfer my pictures from Norway to my computer before I leave for Churchill but a thunderstorm is causing the electricity to flicker. My suitcase is packed, just have to throw a few last minute items into the carry on bag, then its off to Churchill!

23:00 in Oslo Norway June 6,2010

Polar Science Teacher Conference-Oslo

pictures from Oslo, Norway

Back from Oslo

I am back home from Oslo! What a trip! Spent Sunday and Monday, June 5 & 6 in workshops and lectures with the 119 other teachers from around the world. Did experiments about albedo, salinity, and light reflection, watched a demonstration about making blood sausage from reindeer. (I was not brave enough to taste the sausage).
Then on Tuesday the Global Science Conference began i n Lillestrom, about a 30 minute train ride from Oslo. The keynote speaker was His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Later that morning His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco spoke. I was seated within 10 feet of both!
Monday evening we were toasted by the Mayor of Oslo at a reception in the Oslo City Hall.
This is where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented! Tuesday evening everyone attended a barbeque at the Fram Museum on the shores of the North Sea. My roommate and I could not resist the temptation of wading--the water was rather warm---we did not venture out of the shallows though! Wednesday Turtle, my roommate, and I toured Oslo. We got drenched in a rain but ended up at the oldest restaurant in Oslo and had a great desert! Thursday evening I had dinner with two people who have done research in Antarctica, one of whom is returning in August. We tried reindeer burgers which were better than I thought they would be. Friday all of the teachers had dinner together for the last time at a local establishment. I caught the 7:45 train to Sandefjord to fly home. I flew from Oslo to Copenhagen, then over Iceland, Greenland, and Canada to Chicago. The 19:00 airport bus arrived in Rockford at 21:00 (That's the 7:oopm airport bus arrived in Rockford at 9:00pm.)
Now that I am over the jet lag, I can pack and prepare to fly to Churchill on Sunday. There is no time change involved so hopefully no jet lag!















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Olso

I made it to the other side of the world! After a bus, two planes, a train, and a tram I arrived at my hotel in Oslo. Met people from South Africa, Czech Republic, Australia, Canada, and many from the states. Most have studied or worked in Antarctica or the Arctic so I am still trying to figure out how I was invited. Attended the opening ceremony and heard the crown prince of Norway and the prince of Monaco speak. Also went to the reception held for us at Oslo City Hall and was toated by the mayor of Oslo. Still can not believe I am here! I will post some pictures when I have more time.

I leave today!

Just a few more hours until I leave for Oslo, Norway! Hopefully the thunderstorms forecasted for this evening will not matriculate or interfere with our scheduled take off. Just found out that Dr. Kershaw who I will be working with in Churchill, Canada will also be at the International Polar Year Conference in Oslo. Will definitely try to meet him in Oslo.