1 April 2019 Welcome to the Boreal Forest (and PolarTREC Educator Orientation)

Journal

Fairing well in Fairbanks!

Boreal forest on the drive to UAF — A view of the boreal forest from the van as we drove to UAF

We arrived in Fairbanks late Saturday and began our first day of PolarTREC training Sunday morning. We are officially PolarTREC educators and the 2019 cohort is full of eager, dedicated, and inspiring teachers! I've already learned a lot, and not just from PolarTREC administration, but from these educators. Hanging out with them over the last 24 hours has galvanized me.

Getting ready to work at UAF — The sign on our way to the elevator

Before leaving Texas, I was immensely nervous about the challenge that awaited me. Texas weather is nothing like Fairbanks, let alone the arctic environment of Barrow and Toolik, where I will join Dr. Steven Oberbauer and Dr. Jeremy May for field work in June. In addition to that, us educators have an important job ahead of us. We will be field assistants and we will be sharing important research with not only our schools and local community, but the world. My mind has definitely been put at ease, though, after hearing about past educators experiences, and getting to meet this new cohort of teachers that will also be joining field researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic. I feel so lucky to be a part of this team.

We have arrived — Unloading the van at UAF and walking into the building on our way to IARC

Throughout the last couple of days we have gone over what is expected of us and what we can expect out in the field. We've started to strategize and plan our work flow. The support of the PolarTREC staff and the enthusiasm and ideas that have been flowing from our cohort is infectious. I can't wait to get started!

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