On the evening of February 23, a team representing Arctic PIRE traveled to Cora Kelly Elementary School in Alexandria, VA to share topics of Arctic life and climate with local students.
Graduate research assistant Beth Short from the #60Above60 initiative shares student stories from schools around the Arctic, including Alaska and Scandinavia. Learn more about this environmental storytelling project here.
A student tests different ways to build a house in frozen sand to demonstrate the challenges of infrastructure in permafrost regions. Over the evening, the ground material reached various stages of thawing out, which demonstrated the variables of climate fluctuation and human influence on permafrost integrity.
Greg Colletti from the Educational Outreach component of the #60Above60 project facilitates a review of polar geography
Undergraduate research assistant Claire Franco helps students identify animals of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding terrestrial biomes.
In an experiment to demonstrate the natural insulation of Arctic animals, students cover their hands with blubber-like vegetable shortening and plunge them into a tub of ice water. Graduate research assistant Nina Feldman explains more about animal adaptations in the region.
In our small puddle of Arctic Ocean, the students are protected from the sharp iciness.