Mosquitoes, Baby Squirrels, and Final Trapping Days
I have been back in Oklahoma for just over a week now, cooking in 90-104 degree temperatures. I miss the 40-50 degree days back in the Arctic,…
Did I mention that things change quickly in the Arctic? During my month at Toolik Field Station, Toolik Lake transitioned from almost completely frozen (with researchers walking on the ice) to…
Dealing with Goodbye
Today was it. My last day working on the tundra. My last full day in the Arctic. My last day with Team Squirrel.
Team Squirrel: Kate Wilsterman, Jeanette Moore, Cory…
Before the school year ended, some of my students asked great questions about my summer work in the Arctic. I think I have touched on most of them during the course of the past month, but I’ll do a…
The photo board in the Dining Hall at Toolik is a great place to check to remind yourself of the names of other people in camp. People are sorted by the name of the lab space they work in, but not…
Alicia holding an Arctic Ground Squirrel (Purple-White; one of our favorites!)
You’ve seen lots of pictures and video of captive Arctic ground squirrels, but not many of them in the wild. This…
Rainbows
It rained off and on most of the day yesterday, preventing us from trapping in the morning. Even though it looked like more rain might be on the way, we decided to try to get some trapping…
We are now in the next stage of our phase shift experiment!
The first steps
Remember, we have two groups: the control group and the experimental group, with eight Arctic ground squirrels in each…
24 hours of light?
All of these pictures were taken after midnight at Toolik Field Station
So, you already know that it’s daylight the entire time I am here at Toolik Field Station (earning the…
Fantastic Flowers
The tundra went from brown to green in just a matter of days! Ground that was covered with dirt just last week is now blanketed with flowers and low, green shrubs.
Mid-June at…
I ask a lot of questions here at Toolik. Some of them I pose to myself and puzzle over the answers independently, some I share with others. I have interviewed a few scientists while I have been…
When I first started teaching science, I adopted an idea from one of my colleagues (thanks, Jaime B!) to help students understand what it means to “observe” in science.
Basically, observation…
