New Carlisle News Article About My Expedition!

New Carlisle Teacher Headed To Arctic
Written by Mike Kelly
New Carlisle News, New Carlisle Ohio, 45344
Wednesday, 26 May 2010 21:09

The 2009-2010 school calendar is coming to an end. Students are ready to head to the pool, oil up their bikes and skateboards, improve their skill on their Wii consoles...let’s just say anything but reading textbooks or writing reports.
School educators are ready for the rest as well. Some catch up on household chores, spending time with the family …let’s just say anything but reading textbooks or writing reports.
Both educators and students would like to spend their summer in the warm weather. That’s not the case for Tecumseh seventh grade teacher Angela Greene. Only weeks after school is dismissed, she will not be heading to a warm, sandy beach, but rather a two week excursion to the Arctic.
Greene, along with eleven other teachers from throughout the United States, will be participating in an Earthwatch Institute education expedition entitled “Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge”. The adventure will be located at the edge of the Arctic Circle in Manitoba, Canada, near the Town of Churchill, which is also known as “The Polar Bear Capital of the World”. Peter Kershaw, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Alberta, and Carley Basler, Research Technician and Earthwatch Coordinator, are the principal investigators for this expedition.
“I love to do this kind of stuff,” she said. “I try to seek out these kinds of things in the summer. I’m always looking for amazing experiences, that’s my quest, to be able to do these awesome things and bring them back to my students.
“I’ve studied geology in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone; I climbed my first mountain, studied several summers at Stone Laboratory (the oldest freshwater biological research center) on Lake Erie and now this.”
The project Greene and her teammates will be working on seeks to build a long-term monitoring network designed to measure the ecological impact of global warming.
“I had one of my student’s ask me if I believed in global warming,” Greene said. “I told him I wasn’t sure now, but I would have a pretty good idea after I got back.”
At present, the ground is frozen year-round within as little as a few decimeters of the surface, locking in organic matter accumulated since the land emerged from the ocean after deglaciation. Should these organic deposits thaw, decomposition would release carbon dioxide and methane, the two most significant greenhouse gases.
Greene and the other participants will help to quantify the current state of the dominant ecosystems in the region. Once this goal has been accomplished, future changes can be evaluated against the benchmark data.
Greene said the group will be staying at an old military base and will not be allowed off-base without an armed guard because of the danger of polar bears.
The story of Greene’s adventure to the edge of the Arctic Circle will serve as a teaching tool for next year’s eager class of seventh graders. But even before the teacher returns to the classroom, interested students and members of the community can follow her daily blog at angelagreene.blogspot.com. “I’m going to try to update it daily if I can", she said.
The expedition is sponsored by Northrop Grumman. Earthwatch’s mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.

Conference Call with the Arctic Team!

Tonight, we had our team conference call to mark the one month countdown of our adventure in the arctic! Everyone introduced themselves, and we were allowed to ask Mary, our program coordinator, specific questions about the expedition. Mary told us there were many applicants for the trip and the selection process was tough. She congratulated all of us on being selected for the team! I was relieved to learn that other team members had some of the same concerns I did... arctic temperatures, packing within a fifty pound suitcase limit, and crazy travel arrangements. Overall, meeting everyone, even if it was only by telephone, made me even more excited about what awaits me in the arctic! When the school year ends next week, I will focus on purchasing some gear for the field, and packing my bags! Thanks to all my new blog followers!!! I hope to be able to blog daily from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada! My plane leaves June 20th.

I'm a blogger now!

I have been selected to be part of a team of professionals to study climate change at the arctic's edge! As part of my fellowship requirement from the Northrop Grumman Foundation, I will be using this blog to promote my experiences in the arctic. It is my intention to blog during my actual expedition as well as before and after the trip. I am hoping that I can also use my blog as a format for communication with my students during my trip and into the next school year. This is my first blog post... I am still trying to learn this blogging program. More later...