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Dora Nelson, upper school science teacher, has returned to the Arctic for her sixth trip as a teacher-scientist. |
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Read Dora's Journal Entries
Photos from Dora's Current Expedition
February 2007
Introduction to What Dora's Doing...
Hello all,
What a surprise I got last week when I received an email informing me that there is enough money left in the TEA (Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic – National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs) for me to travel to Barrow, Alaska one more time. Would I be interested? Need anyone ask? The catch – the travel had to be done by the end of February 2007. With the recent focus in the news on climate change, the National Science Foundation wants to make use of every dollar budgeted for this type of research. So I am headed back to the land of polar bears and iridescent night skies, and I could not be happier for this opportunity. I leave on Thursday, 15 February and return on Saturday, 24 February. Short trip!
I am not sure which research groups will be in Barrow, but scientists from all over the world are at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium ( BASC ) all year studying arctic systems. The participation as a TEA teacher is with the study, "An Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Variability on the Alaskan North Slope Coastal Region" , a National Science Foundation/Office of Polar Programs grant that gives funding to a wide variety of research projects investigating the effects of a rapidly changing climate on an Arctic coastal community. The most recent predictions about climate change state that significant changes will be observable within 10 years, not in 50 to 100 years as initially thought. Polar regions will likely be most affected, and changes here will cascade around the globe. Projects within the grant include atmospheric, geophysical, biological, ecological, and social research. Click here to read a scholarly paper about this grant. CIRES , the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder , oversee many of the grant projects. Click here to read about research groups at CIRES . For information about studies involving Human Dimensions of Arctic Systems , check the HARC website. I am hoping to meet with Anne Jensen, the anthropologist working on the excavation at Nuvuk. Three CDS students traveled to Barrow and worked with Dr. Jensen in the summer of 2004.
I am also looking forward seeing some of the Healthy Communities Summit and Kivgiq: The Messenger Feast while I am in Barrow. Kivgiq is a yearly meeting and festival of the villages in the North Slope . Check the agenda on the website. Read more about Kivgiq on the ECHO homepage (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations).
I am so excited about going. This trip is a stroke of luck – it will allow me to reconnect with friends and researchers in Barrow. This will be my 6th journey into the Arctic Circle, and I hope that there will be many more trips to this icy part of the world.
I want to thank Dr. Sgro, Head of School, Joe Mouer, Principal of CDS Upper School, my family, friends, and colleagues, for their support and encouragement.
Check the CDS homepage for daily updates and photos!
Email me at nelsarctic@hotmail.com
Dora
Dora holding a baby snowy owl from her summer '05 expedition.
A polar bear footprint from Dora's spring '05 expedition.
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