Science Education Week is the second phase of JSEP. The remaining eight students and four teachers have been reorganized into two groups named Aput (Snow) and Siku (Ice) because of the main focus of the program: the trip to the top of the ice cap. The expedition continues! -- Lynn
The morning began with a saddening goodbye to three of our best American friends, Chloe, Grace, and Sam – and this after yesterday’s departure of Nuka, John Peter, Naasu, Sandra, Michael, and Rikke. Although this morning started off on that depressing note, we were cheered up with a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and REAL coffee.
After this hearty breakfast, we met with Dr. Kurt Burnham of the High Arctic Institute (http://www.higharctic.org/), and his crew, and at approximately 9 o’ clock we drove out to Kellyville to find a peregrine falcon nest. Last night, Burnham held a lecture telling us everything he knows about peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons , which is a lot, preparing us for the today when we’d go and see the falcons.
We hiked to a cliff where Bridger Konkel ran up to the nest and grabbed one of the chicks that were there. As the shrieking cries of the mother and father echoed above us, we all got to hold the fragile 3-day-old baby and get a picture. Don’t worry, the mother and father will not reject the baby after us holding it, the mother’s and father’s instincts are to take care of the baby as soon as it returns, therefore, picking up the baby chick will not affect the bird’s life in anyway.
After a heartfelt goodbye to Kasper, who returned home, the group went on a hike to find a suitable place for a Geocache. We hiked up to an old antenna anchor block at the end of the road to Kellyville and the beginning of the trail to Sisimiut and hid the Geocache. At this point, nobody wanted to hike all the way back to the cars, so all of us squeezed into a truck and enjoyed an uncomfortably bumpy ride back to where we parked the rest of the cars.
We soon returned home to find body bag looking objects in the entrance of our “home.” Our bags for Summit had arrived! We now began the slow process of packing the very few things we need to go. After the packing we finished off the night with a meeting and a game night. Tomorrow is the big day and we can’t wait to meet all the scientists up at Summit.
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