Summary
Nivi Rosing of Nuuk was the first student to leave at 8:05am followed closely by Aggu Broberg and Cecilia Heilmann. The Danes left next followed by the Greenlandic and Danish teachers Lisbeth and Torben. By the afternoon we were down to the two US students, 2 US teachers and one Greenlander, Malou Papis who did not fly out until Monday.
We were sad to see our Greenlandic and Danish friends go. We had all become so very close over this past month. Facebook has been a flurry of uploading pictures and tagging everyone.
On July 22 all the US participants boarded a C-130 for Albany. There were flight delays in Albany but everyone did make it home that evening, or early in the morning. I will miss all of my students. I cherished our time together and hope to visit Greenland...
Summary
This post contains all of our activities at NEEM. We arrived on July 19 and left on July 20.
We arrived at NEEM yesterday and have been busy since we hit the ground. Yesterday students toured the ice core site, learned about research that will happen after the ice coring complete (which just happened yesterday, July 19, 2012!), did a snow mobile treasure hunt and of course had a beautifully prepared Leg of Musk Ox. In the evening students were tasked to be creative and come up with art that represented their time in the JSEP program. Pictures of the day's activities and our delicious dinner are shown below.
The Dome at NEEM, our home July 19 and 20th, 2012
Team Summit with their C-130 Sculpture. From Left: Cecilie (DK), Aggu (Grl), and Alex (US)
Group Kanger's t-shirt...
Summary
Students spent the morning working on their Summit video and the afternoon with Lisa Pratt's Indiana University group. The group is testing various types of equipment to determine whether they may be able to detect methane in the field. If the equipment performs well here they hope that the equipment can be used for future rover missions to Mars.
Summit Video 2012
Pictures
Charlotte Madsen (DK) airing up the raft
Charlotte Madsen (DK) helps Seth Young collect Methane
Alex (US), Marisa (US) and Cecilie (DK) take air samples with grad student Kevin Webster from Indiana University
Student Blog - Charlotte Madsen, Denmark
I am Charlotte from Denmark. I go to...
Summary
In the morning students worked with IGERT fellow Kaitlin Keegan. Kaitlin had the students use their snow pit measurements they took at Summit to calculate the snow density as a function of depth. She then showed them data from 2010 and compared the results. Fie Thorup Hansen wrote up the results. The report is below.
Firn Density Measurements
At 8:30pm the group went to the local waterfall. Since its daylight 24/7, we can do fun things late into the evening. We returned at 11pm. Pictures are below.
Cecilia Olsen-Heilmann taking Aggu's callsign during the hike to the waterfall
Blueberry bushes on our hike!
Torben Benoni on a large rock near the waterfall
Blogs
Kaitlin Keegan - IGERT Fellow, Dartmouth University
Kaitlin Keegan, IGERT Fellow
Hello, my name is Kaitlin...
Summary
Bag drag was at 6:30am and students boarded the flight by 10am. When the C-130 landed several Kangerlussuaq residents were on the flight as a "turnaround" tour. Aggu Broberg of Disco Bay was asked to be a tour guide and interpreter. We then boarded the flight for the 1.5 hour flight to Kanger. When we arrived in Kanger we had lunch and students took showers (having been 3 days since we'd had one!), did laundry and generally relaxed for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow students will work on producing their Summit video and visit a local waterfall.
Here is a picture we took the morning before we left Summit.
Fog Bow at Summit Station Greenland July 2012
Student Blogs
Malou Papis, Qassiarsuk, Greenland
Malou Papis, Qassiarsuk, South Greenland
Hi my name is Malou Papis, and I...
Summary
Students spent the morning watching a LC-130H land on the skiway and then visited the backlit snow pit where IGERT student Kaitlin Keegan showed the students how the layers tell the story of the climate for the last two years.
In the afternoon students rotated through three different stations: taking density measurements at the snow pit with Kaitlin, working with Brant Miller at the Mobile Science Facility (MSF) to develop questions unique to Summit and conducting experiments to answer them, and using a "ramsonde" to determine skiway snowpack via a Tucker ride to the end of the runway with Bob, Summit Field Coordinator.
Pictures
Kaitlin Keegan explaining snow layers in the backlit snowpit
It took the group to get the hand corer unstuck!
Success! Fie Thorup Hansen (DK)...
Summary
After the 8am morning meeting the students headed out with the science techs to complete the days standard experiments. Two science techs walk to various small stations around the "Big House" that are taking measurements and must be recorded at least once per day. Students donned clean suits to enter the clean sector, took snow surface and frost samples, and measured the weather.
All suited up for the clean sector at Summit
In the afternoon the students worked with the University of Idaho's ICECAPS experiments and the Adventure Learning program. Students conducted experiments and then are sharing the results with colleagues in Idaho.
During the afternoon Aggu Broberg took a pamorama picture of the station. We hope to take pictures of the sun each hour at the same location...
Summary
Science Education Week Group picture before leaving for Summit at 7am.
We had a 3am wake-up call for our flight to Summit this morning which was delayed until 7am. But we made it before noon and had a wonderful lunch, tour of the station, and dinner. Students then did the dishes, cleaned the tables and hear a lecture from IGERT student Kaitlin Keegan.
Cecilia Olsen-Heilmann and Fie Thorup Hansen launching an Ozonesonde (Ozone balloon)
Student Blogs
Fie Thorup Hansen
Fie Thorup Hansen at Summit
This is your reporter from Summit Station at the Greenlandic ice sheet Fie Thorup Hansen of Denmark.
It has definitely been kind of a long day to day; we were supposed to be ready in front of the KISS building at 4 am, so most of us were up at around 3, only to find out that our...
Summary
First group Science Education Week Picture. From left: Cecilie Nordholm, Nivi Rosing, Cecilie Olsen-Heilmann , Charlotte Madsen, Alex Schmidt, Aggu Broberg, Fie Thorup Hansen, Marisa LaRouche, Malou Papis
Today was a transition day with Field School students and Greenlandic educator Rikke Jorgensen leaving today. Four of the US students left at 9am this morning on the C-130 and arrived safely in Albany, NY.
The 9 students who are staying for Science Education Week worked with Brant Miller's group from the University of Idaho. They did a remote sensing activity, using IR detectors to measure temperature of objects. Students will continue to work with Brant at Summit. Follow their program at
http://adventurelearningat.org/taxonomy/term/2
Speaking of Summit, we report at...
Summary
Students are spending today working on their presentations. Any "old" work; videos, reports, etc are also being completed and uploaded to the appropriate journal, so look back over the journals to find the new content.
Presentations
This evening at 7:30pm Greenland time the students will give their presentations on their field school experience. I will post those presentations here as I receive them.
Group 1 Presentation
Group 1 Final Presentation
Group 2 Presentation
Group 2 Final Presentation
Group 3 Presentation
Group 3 Final Presentation
Group 4 Presentation
Group 4 Final Presentation
Group 5 Presentation
Group 5 Final Presentation
Student Blogs
Fie Thorup Hansen of Odense, Denmark
Guess who, it’s me again, Fie Thorup Hansen of Odense, Denmark.
I already...
Summary
Students spent the morning with Julia Bradley-Cook and Ruth Heindel about 1.5 km outside of town digging for permafrost. Students were assigned different types of vegetation...shrubs, grass, mix, etc and then each group dug down to the permafrost and examined the layers.
After lunch students are finishing up there work from the last two weeks. Tomorrow students will put all of their work together and give a presentation.
Group 5 Permafrost video
Pictures of each group
I realize I hadn't posted individual pictures of the groups so when I report that 'group 1 did weather today' you have no clue who I'm talking about. So here are pictures of each group
Group...
Summary - More updates to come!
Asa Rennermalm of Rutgers University is spending the day with the students discussing and doing her research. This morning she is explaining her research to the students and this afternoon we will go out to Point 660 and check some of her experiments plus students will take flow rate measurements of their own. Students got to drill into the ice and set one of her poles to measure how much the ice has melted.
Pictures!
Kasper Busk, Dana Cucci (US) and Nivi Rosing(Greenland) identifying plants
Upstream of the flow rate measurements
Students taking flow rate measurements with Asa
Cecilia Olsen Heilmann drilling a hole for a bamboo pole
Group Assignments for Today
Group 1: Flow Rate Data
Group 2: Find and identify Rocks
Group 3: Video documentation...
Summary
In the morning students learned about fossils from Greenlandic educator Rikke Jorgensen and then Rikke and Einstein Fellow Shelly Hynes discussed climate change data including using Diatoms to show how temperatures have increased over time. This data was provided to Shelly by Paul Hamilton, Curator of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Toronto.
In the afternoon the students traveled out to the end of the Kangerlussuaq runway to search for fossils. Agnes Avakumoff (Alaska) found a really good one which is shown below.
Fish fossil found in Kangerlussuaq
Group 4 video about Fossils
After we collected several fossils we decided to have a bit of fun with a mud...
Summary
The students are spending the morning working on their projects. Several groups have videos to finish up which will be posted to the respective day's blogs as soon as I receive them. Group 1 took several days worth of conductivity measurements and summarized those results which are posted below. Other groups have rocks and mineral or plant identification projects to finish. 5 students have blog posts to do from July 5-7. Please check previous blog posts throughout the day for these updates. Students must finish their work by noon however videos will take me several hours to upload due to limited internet.
Greenlandic Food and Games
The Greenlanders introduced us to some traditional food and herbal tea. We had salmon, shrimp and raw whale! Raw whale doesn't taste like...
Summary
By Lynn Reed, 2012-2013 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs
Einstein Fellows Shelly Hynes and Lynn Reed near Russell Glacier in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland
I am Lynn Foshee Reed, and I will be the 2012-13 Einstein Fellow in the Office of Polar Programs. I am thrilled to be at JSEP 2012, and I thank Shelly Hynes (the current OPP Einstein Fellow) and all the other OPP folks for their support.
Today was a day filled with science and nature. We boarded the bus at 8:00 and traveled to meet and spend the day with Michael Avery and David Watts (assisted by Spencer, Laura, Chris, and Natalie). Michael and David are Penn State graduate students who are researching invertebrate and plant (respectively) phenology – “the...
Summary
Today students visited the Sondestrom Incoherent Scatter Radar facility, aka Kellyville. This facility uses RADAR to profile the upper atmosphere and LIDAR (Laser radar) to profile the lower atmosphere. They also study the aurora borealis with the radio attenna. You can learn more about the radar facility at http://isr.sri.com/
Group Picture at Kellyville
Aggu Broberg (Grl) at the Incoherent Scatter Radar facility in Kellyville
Group 4's Video of Kellyville
In the afternoon students Skyped with Tim Spuck and Jean Pennycook, Einstein Fellows working at the National Science Foundation. Tim talked about the IceBridge project, an aircraft that flies over...
Summary
The group headed back out to Russell Glacier to meet up with Karen Cameron's team. Karen is a researcher from the University of Washington. They study subglacial microbes. The students collected subglacial meltwater at the site and brought it back to the labs at KISS in Kangerlussuaq. Students then analyzed the samples and looked at the various microbes under a UV microscope.
Pictures from today's research activities
Karen Cameron talking to Rikke Jorgenson about their experiments
Students learning how to pipette samples
Today's Weather Report from Group 1
Cloudy and over cast
Temperature: around 19°C
Wind speed: around 2,5 m/s
Relative humidity: 43%
Wind chill: 19°C
Dew point: 5,1°C
Barometric: 1013,22 mBar
Group 5's video of iron content in meltwater...
Summary
The day started with a SKYPE session with Andreas Mikkelsen of Copenhagen University. He explained to the students how to measure river discharge rate (flux) and how that relates to glacier melt. The students then went out to the river and made measurements using simple methods: students dropped a branch in the river and timed how long it traveled a known distance. The distances were determined using GPS coordinates.
Each Group's responsibilities for the day are:
Group 1: Measure flow rate on the right side of the river over a short (bridge-width) distance.
Group 2: Measure flow rate on the left side of the river over a short (bridge-width) distance.
Group 3: Video journal of Watson River experiments.
Group 4: Measure flow rate on right side of the river over a long...
Summary
The group began at 8am for our 45 minute journey to Russell Glacier. After lunch we headed to the Greenland Ice Sheet Point 660. Students had several tasks to complete today. They include:
Group 1: Placing a geocache at 660.
Group 2: Video of Julia Bradley Cook and Ruth Heindel of Dartmouth University.
Group 3: Video of Point 660.
Group 4: Weather measurements at Russell and place a geocache at the airplane wreckage on the way to Russell.
Group 5: Video from Russell Glacier.
Results
Group 1
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=9b7ef079-44ca-410...
Group 2
Group 2 also won the Prettiest Rock Award
Group 3...
Summary of Today's Activities
The students finished three projects today. In the morning the students learned how to identify rocks from Rikke Jørgensen, a Danish teacher who has been teaching in Greenland for several years. Then I discussed the process of research and helped the students formulate questions about Lake Ferguson, Kangerlussuaq's water supply, and the Landfill. Kasper Busk, our fearless leader filled in details about both locations.
So students headed out to both locations to collect samples. We returned with the samples to the school and then each student attempted to answer the question they formulated about each site. Students created a report of their results which are attached.
Students also had to collect rocks and plants at each site, document and identify...
Activities
The students had two main activities with the morning dedicated to learning how to geocache and the afternoon visiting the sled dogs and learning how to edit video.
Geocaching
The students spent the first hour this morning learning how to use a GPS and to record the GPS coordinates for landmarks around Kangerlussuaq. Next students had to find each other's landmarks given the coordinates. Lastly, they were then given actual geocache coordinates located here in Kangerlussuaq and asked to find them. Tomorrow while we head out to Lake Ferguson, students will visit another geocache (hopefully!) and will place their own geocache's which will be listed on http://www.geocaching.com for next year's Field School students to find and maintain.
This was a student geocache landmark...
Alex Schmidt, Washington State
Most of the other students arrived today. The American students did inventory of our equipment this morning. Then greeted the other students all afternoon.
This morning Dana and I went for a walk along the river. We found a block of ice. We fished it out and took pictures of it. Then this afternoon we went for lunch and then we waited and greeted all the students. It was fun. We even found some by surprise…Shelly was suppose to find them first and it was by surprise because we found them before she did even though we left after her. Later on we had dinner with everyone except a couple who haven’t arrived yet. We also learned how to say hi in Greenlantic, “Haluu”.
Pictures from today
Nivi and Aviaq, both Greenlandic students, enjoying dinner.
The...
Summary
Today was another absolutely amazing day in Kangerlussuaq! Bright and early this morning we went to breakfast in the "cafeteria" which is really just a little restaurant on base. It was delicious! They have the bets breakfast here and they even have chocolate-nutella-ish spread you can put on it! After breakfast we were able to chill out in the dorms and unpack until lunch. For lunch we had some sort of thinly sliced meat, smoked salmon, salad, and pasta: mmmm. After lunch we decided to go on a hike around the area. We drove about 5 minutes up the mountain and then hiked down to the edge of the lake. It ended up being a two hour hike but it was SO worth it! Once you get up to the top of the mountain all you can see is the sparkle of the sun on the lake and hills all around. And...
Summary
We began our day at 5am with the 109th Air National Guard picking us up and taking us to the "airport". There we waited for our flight to be ready. While we waited, we took our first group picture.
JSEP 2012 US Delegation first group picture at the 109th ANG
JSEP 2012 US Delegation. This is our first group picture as we waited for the LC-130 flight to Greenland
Today the students took their first LC-130H ride from Albany, NY to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. Its a 6 hour flight. So what do the students do on a 6 hour flight to Greenland?
Maeve McCormick (Idaho) convinced the LoadMaster to let her borrow his extra flight suit and helmet for part of the trip
The loadmaster allowed a few of our students to try on a flight suit and helmet during our C-130 flight
Dana Cucci (New...
Tomorrow the students and I will travel to Albany, NY to await out Wednesday flight to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. On Friday we begin the Kangerlussuaq Science Field School.
A map of the 2012 United States JSEP participants.
To learn more about the students check out their video bios which can be found under the Resources section or in the last journal posting here. A written bio with pictures is shown below.
Student Biographies
Student Biographies with Pictures
