It’s been a week since I found out that I’d been selected to go on an expedition with Students On Ice this summer. There are so many things to think about and write about, but first, a little background is in order. This blog post and the ones that will follow it will be used as journal entries to document my trip.
Students on Ice is a Canadian organization that was founded by Geoff Green. They take students on educational expeditions to polar regions of the planet. The first time I really heard about SOI was about 5 years ago when Geoff came to East Northumberland Secondary School where I taught to give a presentation about the organization. There was a student from ENSS who was fund raising to attend that seasons Antarctic expedition. Geoff talked about the trips and the strength in raising awareness one student at a time by actually taking them to these spectacular corners of our planet.
Turned out that Geoff had been from the Brighton area, and was friends with a number of people that I also knew, so we ended up talking about SOI after the presentation at a local restaurant. In the intervening years I’ve attended presentations by Geoff and his partner at a few Ontario conferences such as STAO. Every time, I thought how amazing it would be to go on one of the expeditions with SOI, and I’d seriously considered applying to the program a number of times. The trips are not cheap, as one would expect from such a voyage. So I’ve always managed to talk myself out of it.
This year, as part of my new position of Instructional Leadership Consultant for our school board, I was privileged to work on a project with the Canadian Museum of Nature that consisted of creating lessons and projects that would leverage videoconferencing and web technology. The focus of this lesson was to be the effects of climate change on ice algae in the Canadian Arctic and its effects on the Arctic ecosystem. Our team did a wonderful job and the lessons will be on the MoN website in the coming months. One day in June, as we were working on finishing up the project, I received an email from another contact from the Peterborough Regional Science Fair committee that I sit on, that Youth Science Canada had extended the deadline for applying to go on this years SOI Arctic 2009 Expedition. In one of life’s wonderful twists, this opportunity arrived as we were working and thinking about the Arctic environment and the effects of climate change on the north. Turns out the YSC was sponsoring a trip for a teacher/chaperon and for 12 students from across Canada to attend the SOI trip. So I applied.
The end of the first week of my vacation, I checked my messages and there was a message from Reni Barlow the director of Youth Science Canada. I called him back and, to my astonishment, he told me that they would like me to go on this years Students On Ice expedition. After considering the offer for a heartbeat, I happily accepted!
So for the last week, I’ve been receiving and sending forms and info to the SOI office in preparation for the trip. I will need to cut short my Maritime visit for this summer to return to Ontario and be in Ottawa on July 28th for trip preparation. We fly north on the 31st (I think…) Then we board the SOI vessel for a two-week tour of the coast of Baffin Island.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting pre-trip thoughts and ideas on what the journey will mean to me as an educator and individual. Of course, post trip, there will be lots to share!
Stay tuned…….
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