"No Place Like Home"

Thanks

As this experience in Churchill comes to a close I must thank many people. I will not mention names on the blog, only titles.

My administration at SHS for giving me the time away from school at the beginning of a new school year. THANKS!

My substitute teacher who for the past eight school days has taken over my classes. THANKS!

My colleagues at SHS for your support and rearranging of schedules to accommodate my skype calls. I know it is a disruption to your subject area teaching time to pull those students together. THANKS!

To my family, for your love and support of my involvement in this journey. THANKS!

To my students, who I am sure you have behaved for your sub and for replying to my posts on this blog. It was nice to see your comments and questions. THANKS!

THANKS TO ALL!

PS. As I am writing this post someone came in and said we all need to go outside and see this beautfull sunset. I did and it is a beautiful sunset,a bright orange peeking through the clouds over the flat tundra and trees. A perfect sunset. How timing as the sun sets on this journey.

Some Closing Thoughts

Only a few more opportunities to post on this blog as my time here in Churchill winds down. This has been a great experience, and I look forward to sharing it with my students, colleagues, friends, family and anyone who wants to listen.

However, this is just the start. Upon my return to school, I will work with my students and we will continue on this journey together, with a goal to make everyone more appreciative of this place we call Earth. God has blessed us with a beautiful place to live, a place like no other that we are aware of. We must not take it for granted, we must not live in the present, we must think of the future.

The human mind can not comprehend geologic time, we can not imagine 500 hundred years into the future, much less 5000, or 500,000. There are things that we can do now to protect our planet for future generations.We must understand what we can do and do it. There are things related to our environment and climate change that we have no control over, that is God's will, and we accept it.

Throughout geologic history there have been many changes to this earth and there will continue to be changes, some soon, others later, but the reality is there will be change. It is like we are on the Titanic and we know the iceberg is straight ahead and we are heading right for it, yet we have time to do something. Do we make the necessary adjustments and just graze the iceberg, or do we do nothing and hit it head on? I prefer to just graze the iceberg.

The little things that we all do can make a difference.

Walking through the wetland

For your viewing pleasure. In this video we have just completed our dig for soil samples in this white spruce wetland.

A few more questions from those great SHS students

hi its emily m

when you were on your tour did you see any sharks? no, we did not see any. i am not certain if they are in the Hudson bay.


how big were the beluga whales and do they live there all year? They average about 14 feet in length. They do not live here all year long. They spend some time here in the summer and then begin to move out of the Churchill area. We actually have missed the "peak season" for viewing them, but we saw plenty.


mary g w

How much organic matter was in your samples? It depends on the location where the sample is taken. It ranged anywhere from about 5cm in depth below the surface to 2m below the surface.

How long do polar bears live? The individuals who are up here doing the research said they can live between 20-25 year.

What kind of degree would you need if you wanted to work on this type of research(that you're doing) for a job? It would be an environmental science degree.


what kind of gov. does Canada have? They have a democracy. With a Prime Minister and a Parliament. Similar to ours, just different terminology.

Maddie Rae S.
I have a question:
In a past post, you said something about FEN. Does that stand for anything??????? The letters FEN do not stand for anything. That is the way we have been writing it on our data when we collect samples from the fen. It is a wetland in the tundra. You have heard of a bog, a swampland, well they are all similar in being in a low area with great amounts water, but different nutrients, gases etc. in each.

The Field Work Is Complete

Today we completed our last day in the field as we visited two sites to collect soil samples and to count seedlings.

At one site we used a permafrost core to go down about two meters to get below the permafrost. Beneath the permafrost was sand and a small piece of a sea shell. Yes, once upon a time the land where this tundra exits today was once part of a sea.

When using the permafrost core the organic matter that we are bringing up has been beneath the surface for thousands of years and has quite a stinch. A question for your notebook: Why does organic matter have such a strong order?

The depth of the permafrost at the different sites that we have explored has been anywhere from 27cm to to 47cm. At two locations we have used the permafrost core to find out how thick the permafrost is, those depths have been 1.5 meters and 2.0 meters thick. Beneath the permafrost at both locations has been the evidence of sand and minerals.

Tomorrow we have some lab work to finish up and then begin the process of cleaning up the lab, and packing for the 11:00am flight home on Tuesday. I fly from Churchill to Minneapolis, MN to Nashville, with a scheduled arrival in Nashville at 10:00pm on Tuesday night.

Listed below is a link that has some new photos, including your Polar Bear.

Updated Photos From Churchill, MB

Answers to some of your questions

Hey Mr. Knoop !! Hope you're having fun being a tourist !!
How big is the largest polar bear that the scientist who researches them has told you about ???? In talking w/ one of the researchers who is currently up here he said they had one the other day who is two meters in length and weighed slightly over 700 kilograms.

juan josé r. 7p

How many whales, if any, did you see in Churchill ??? We did not count. There were many in the bay out by the grain elevator. They were easy to spot.

Juan José R. 7P

What is your favorite activity at the CNSC ?? Sleeping or eating. :) The rest of the time is working.

Juan José R. 7P

Hi, Mr. Knoop!! what kind of bugs are flying around you in that picture, and are they poisonous? Have fun on your tourist day! The bugs are tiny black flies or mosquitoes. They are not poisonous, but the black fly bites can cause swelling and redness.

<3 TORI C. :D

hey mr. knoop! i have some questions:
-How long does it take you to find decaying organic matter? Not long at all. Most of the time is it close to the surface and in some locations in goes down quite deep.
-How much organic matter have you found so far? A bunch, anywhere we dig it is there.
-Do you measure the seedlings and look for organic matter in the same day or do you do them on separate days? We do that at each site. We dig and get samples of organic matter and count seedlings in each location. That has been our primary focus on the expedition.
-What did you do as a "tourist" today? We saw polar bears, bald eagles, falcons, whales, a fox, jellyfish on the beach, sandhill cranes, canadian eskimo dogs along with many other wonders of nature.
Hope your having fun and I hope these are considered legit questions! Great questions.
Sarah G.

Permafrost Video

Sorry, I left off the video. Time to call it a night.

Aurora borealis

Polar Bears and Beluga Whales yesterday. Late tonight (Saturday night) we were able to see the Aurora Borealis. Quite a spectacular showing. Unfortunately I was not able to take any quality pictures with my camera, but we did have someone here who appears to have some good pictures that I will share with you.

Today we were out at the wetlands and did battle with the bugs and dug in more mud. It was also quite warm here today with temperatures in the mid 20's celcius. You convert. I hope you all are getting use to reading and seeing things in metric form, for that is the way it will be.

While in the field today we collected more organic matter samples and counted any seedlings that we find within a certain area. We also did some permafrost coring and digging.

I will attach a video of the permafrost digging.

You need to research the auroa borealis and place that information into your notebooks.

Finally, some of you have posted great questions that I have not posted or had the chance to respond to. I like it that you are keeping me busy with questions and responses to my questions, but I am beginning to fall behind as our work load here is getting a little heavier. I will respond to your questions on this blog and post them in the near future. Today was a long day as we were out in the field at 8:30am came back for lunch at 12:15 back in the field from 1:30-5:30pm, had dinner at 6:00 and then did lab work from 7:00-9:00pm. While in the lab we are processing a large number of soil samples,and have many more to process and collect. So it will be a busy Sunday, but I will do my best to answer your questions.

More of your questions

Hey Mr. Knoop! i have a question for you! here it is:

ok so when you were getting the samples of the orgainc matter did you dig past the permafrost? NO WE HAVE NOT GONE INTO THE PERMAFROST. THE PERMAFROST VARIES IN DEPTH AROUND HERE. IT COULD BE AS CLOSE AS 30CM TO AS DEEP AS 15METERS. WE HAVE BEEN USING SHOVELS TO DIG AT THIS POINT ONLY GOING DOWN ABOUT A MAX DEPTH OF 30CM, IF THAT DEEP. IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO DIG AS THE LAND IS PRETTY SOFT, OR IN THE CASE OF THE FEN A WETLAND.
and how far did you dig and was it hard to dig? I would "dig" an answer! teehee! :)
Emma S.

Answers to some of your questions

Hey mr knoop! Here are my questions.
Why is it important to know the percentage of the organic matter that is in each sample? WE TOOK SAMPLES AT DIFFERENT DEPTHS, 0-10cm, 11-20cm and 20-30cm. IF THE RESEARCHERS KNOW APPROXIMATELY HOW MUCH ORGANIC MATTER IS AT THE VARIOUS DEPTHS THEN THEY CAN BEGIN TO MAKE PREDICTIONS AS TO HOW MUCH CO2 AND CH4 COULD BE RELEASED WHEN THAT ORGANIC MATTER BEGINS TO DECOMPOSE.
What are you going to work on tomorrow? WE WILL PROBABLY BE OUT COUNTING SEEDLINGS AND DOING MORE SOIL WORK FOR THE REMAINDER OF OUR TIME HERE. THERE MAY BE A CHANCE TO DO SOME CORING DEEPER INTO THE SURFACE TO ATTEMPT TO GET AT THE PERMAFROST LEVEL IN SOME LOCATIONS.
The other day, why did you want to know how tall the white spruce seedlings were? IN SOME CASES THE SEEDLINGS WERE ESTIMATED TO BE 14 YEARS OLD AND ONLY 30cm TALL. THIS GIVES SCIENTIST AN IDEA AS TO HOW WELL THE TREES ARE HANDLING THE WEATHER CLOSER TO THE COAST LINE AS COMPARED TO FURTHER SOUTH (INLAND).

GREAT QUESTIONS.
marylauren m.

Just what you've been waiting for!

Hello SHS students. Here is what you have been waiting for me to see up here in Churchill. Yes, that is a Polar Bear lounging on the rocks along the coast of the Hudson Bay. Actually we saw three today on our day off. This one was the closest at about 150meters away.

We also saw many beluga whales, a couple of bald eagles, fox, sandhill cranes, jellyfish and many other types of birds. It was perfect weather with the temperature about 12 degrees Celsius, a little breezy along the coast and most importantly no hassles with the black flies and mozzies (mosquitios) as they call them in the UK.
More pics and answers to some of your questions will be in a later blog.

Fighting The Bugs

Look carefully. Notice the bugs around the head. Now you know why I wear gloves in temperatures at 15 degrees Celsius and wear the bug net as well.

Lab time and field time

Today's morning session was spent in the lab processing the samples from yesterday's collection in the FEN. After lunch and having a skyping session with the SHS 7th graders we went back into the filed to collect more organic matter samples.

Great job today 7th grade with the questions you had. You and the 8th grade had some great questions over the last two days and those sessions went well. I hope to connect with you all again.

In this photo I am in the lab breaking up organic matter with a mortar and pestle, and then placing the sample in a crucible to determine it's mass. After getting it's mass I then place it in a muffle oven to be baked for four hours at 550 degrees Celsius. After being in the oven at that temp all organic matter will be burned off and we will then know the percentage of the organic matter that is in a particular sample.

We are reversing the process tonight as you will have the opportunity to ask questions and I will post those questions that are legitimate. Any question that is posted will get you "clipboard points". Your questions may relate to things we discussed prior to my departure, what we are currently doing up here at the CNSC, the town of Churchill, Polar Bears, Beluga Whales, organic matter, permafrost coring, etc. I will post your questions if they are legit and I will then get answers posted. No need to ask questions about what the food is like or what I had for dinner. Keep them legit. :)

Tomorrow is our day off. Yeah! We are heading to downtown Churchill, population 954. We also have a guide that will take us (hopefully) to see some whales, and a Polar Bear.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Today Was Skype Day

The highlight of today was connecting with those great SHS students. It was so nice to see your smiling faces, hear your voices, for those minutes today it did not feel like I was 2500 km from you. Your greeting of singing the Canadian National Anthem was quite impressive, and you did a good job of focusing once you completed your singing.

Your had good questions, you appeared to be paying attention, the noise level was low so that I could hear you and you could hear me---great job. I hope to "drop in" for a spontaneous call at some point, so you need to be on your best behavior. :)

As I mentioned in the skype session today our morning was at a FEN, which is similar to a swamp with a main difference being a swamp has more trees and a FEN has very few trees and much more organic matter than in a swamp. With each step we took today in the FEN our feet would sink several centimeters in the mud. Quite a mess. Then on our way back to the research station our van broke down, thus the delay in connecting for our skype session.

Our afternoon session was out closer to the coast at a tree island where we did some more digging for organic matter and searching for white spruce seedlings. We will begin drying the mud samples in the ovens on Thursday to determine how much carbon was in each sample.

Guess what Friday is? It is an off day for us. We get to go into the town of Churchill for a full day of being a "tourist". It will be nice to take a break from crawling on my hands and knees searching for seedlings or digging in mud for organic matter.

I am looking forward to talking with the 7th grade on Thursday at about 12:20. I am sure you will have some great questions.

Link to photos

Churchill Photos

Who is that masked man?

Putting data into the palm pilot.

Rain & Bugs

Wind and rain greeted the team this morning as we headed out to a "tree island" located on tundra close to the coast. Our mission, to collect the same measurements on seedlings that we have been gathering from the "tree plantation" earlier in the week.

The "tree island" is where white spruce have grown naturally from seedlings, where as the "tree plantation" is when those seedlings were planted in rows by man. Both are located in tundra areas, with the research study to see how each sampling grows and deals with the weather.

Although the rain ended for the afternoon session and the wind subsided, another more annoying problem started flying around. Yes, the much talked about black fly and mosquitoes begin to seek us. After about 15 minutes of swatting these tiny creatures, many of us headed to the van to put on our bug gear. This did wonders in keeping the bugs off of our skin, but for a few people it was to late. I was bitten on the hand as were a few other colleagues.Unfortunately one individual was bitten just below both eyes, causing a little swelling. What do we wish for? if it is cold, rainy and windy the bugs are not a problem. Maybe that is our wish. Or, do we wish for warmer weather, dry skies and the onslaught of bugs? At this point, I prefer the cooler temperatures, and the rain.

During the afternoon session we began to take soil samples to determine the organic content of soil located in this tundra area. These samples taken from a tundra site at a depth of about 10cm, with the hope to get three samples. However, there was no organic matter below the first four centimeters.

Some questions for you. What happens to organic matter when it begins to decay? What do you think is a contributing factor in causing the organic matter to decay? "Clipboard Points" for the correct answers.

I look forward to talking with the 8th graders on Wednesday and then the 7th grade on Thursday.

Do We Look Like We Know What We Are Doing?

Of Course We Do!

We are on the tundra here in the white spruce plantation.

Counting Terminals on a White Spruce Seedling

Rain, Rain Go Away!

A rainy and windy day brought out the rain gear and umbrellas on this Labor Day 2009 in Churchill, Manitoba. Yes, the Canadians also observe Labor Day.

Today we were back out at the seedling plantation where we finished measuring the seedlings to determine how the weather has been affecting them since being planted in 2005. After we conduct more research at different locations we will then begin to discuss the data that has been collected.

After the rainy day in the field and before dinner this evening Dr. Peter Kershaw, the lead researcher here, Bill Power from Calgary, Alberta, who works for Shell Oil and I went out for a thirty minute run in the rain on the gravel roads. Dr. Pete took the starter pistol with him just in case we encountered a Polar Bear. I took my camera in case we saw a Polar Bear. I wonder who the Polar Bear would have gone after first.

This evening’s lecture was a very good one on Global Climate Change. I look forward to sharing that information with those great SHS students, who I do miss. However, I hope to see your smiling faces and respond to your great questions when we Skype in a few days.

Here are some questions that I would like for you to begin to discuss and gather information on prior to our scheduled conference later this week.
What is a seedling?
What climate is best suitable for White Spruce?
What is the tundra?
In dealing with seedlings and trees what is meant by the term bud?
What is meant by the term treeline?

A REMINDER FOR THE 7TH AND 8TH GRADE STUDENTS: Please make sure that you have been putting all questions and answers in your notebook, even the “clipboard points” that have been posted on this blog. The questions and answers will be discussed perhaps during a Skype call, but most definitively upon my return. Perhaps you will be able to discuss in class at some point some of these questions. Many of you have picked up some “clipboard points”. Good job!

Interview With Carley

In this interview you will meet Carley Basler who is the research assistant at CNSC and is one of the 900 plus permanent residents of Churchill. No, Sr. Ann Hyacinth did not send me up to a prison work program here in Canada, Carley is on the look out for Polar Bears. No sightings yet.

Interviews with Damir and Chishimba

In this video you will meet Damir and Chisimba who are employed with Shell Oil Company and have been working with me in measuring seedlings. The audio portion in this video is distorted due to the high winds, so it will be difficult to understand.
Damir is from Croatia but is currently living in the UK and Chisimba is from Zambia and currently working in Houston. In your notebook I would like for you to write down where each of these countries are located and what countries surround them.
More later.

Off to the field we go.

The work has begun, or should I say the volunteer work has begun, and so have the long hours. We were told that the hours would be long as there is much data to collect and record throughout the day, then we have evening wrap -up and lectures.

Each day starts with breakfast at 7:00am, followed by a briefing on the type of work we will be doing throughout the day. After the briefing we will then head out to the field until returning to the CNSC for lunch at 12:00. After lunch it is back into the field until about 5:00pm when we return for dinner and the evening programs which will be either summary of the days events, data entry, lectures or a combination of all three, usually lasting until 9:00pm.

Today's morning session we stayed indoors for instruction on how to use hand held GPS systems, palm pilots to enter data, how to take soil coring samples of permafrost, and a procedure in taking measurements on small seedling trees in order to determine their rate of growth and age.

After lunch we headed out to a tree plantation and began measuring the height of 55 trees to determine their height, approximate age, and how many lateral branches they had. To complex to explain in a blog. When I say height and measurement, I am not talking giant California Redwoods, I am talking small seedlings that can range in size from 5cm to 17cm. Clipboard pts for converting cm to inches.

We did have about 30 minutes after dinner where we drove out and had an opportunity to see the sunset over the Hudson Bay, nice setting and there is a ship out in the bay that ran a ground several years ago, which made for a nice sunset picture with the ship in the foreground. So, I offer 10 clipboard points for the first person who can tell me the name of ship that sits in the Hudson Bay just offshore from Churchill and tell me what permafrost is. Good Luck!

I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy your Monday off.

I Made It!

I arrived in Chruchill about 5:30pm this evening. We had dinner and then meet from 7:30-10:00pm to discuss the objectives and what some of the testing that we will be doing.
Time to call it a night.
Will have more information for you all on Sunday.

Winnipeg

I am safe and sound in Winnipeg. After a delay out of Nashville this morning due to fog, which caused me to miss my connection in Chicago, I finally arrived here in Winnipeg at 5:30pm. However, my luggage did not make it with me on the same flight. It arrived here in Winnipeg at 10:45pm. Glad it caught up with me here in Winnipeg instead of trying to catch up with me in Churchill.

Great answers from the questions about converting km to miles and CNSC.
Make sure that everyone is writing the questions and answers down in your notebook.

I am keeping a list of the "clipboard points".

I am scheduled to arrive in Churchill at 5:30pm on Saturday.
The real work will then begin.

"Clipboard Points" for those who can give me some demographic information on Winnipeg and Churchill. We need to know some information about these two Canadian cities. Do you think Winnipeg is the same size as Nashville?

Maybe this Canadian census link might help.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm

Have a great weekend.

Thanks!

What a great send off earlier today at school. Thanks so much for the love and support that you all have given me as I prepare for this journey to Churchill. From the administrative team who so graciously has given me the time away from school to grow professionally and has provided me with the technology to share this experience directly with my students. To my colleagues whose support has been incredible, especially this week as I was putting the finishing details on travel, packing, organizing and lessons. You could see when the stress was building and you were there to help relieve it. Our great students at SHS, who I am so proud of and honored to share this journey with, I look forward to seeing your smiling faces and answer your great questions when we Skype. Your cards and notes that were given to me today are so special. I loved reading them tonight. Yes, I will be careful around the Polar Bears. Finally, to my family for their constant love and support, you're awesome. Love to all.

The Journey Begins In Approximately 13 Hours

CNSC



Churchill, Manitoba Canada

Distance: 2,574 km

St. Henry School, Nashville, TN


"Clipboard" points to the first 3 who correctly convert and post the km to miles, and state what CNSC stands for.