Day 21: Week 2

(September 29)

Bear Sightings: Still 0

Yes, I am still alive. No, I haven’t seen any bears yet. I’ve been busy this week, hence the lack of updates. I’ll try to remedy that with this post. 

Here are some otters as my apology

We worked with the 6^th graders this week in the Discovery Room, due to their schedule we go in on Monday and on Friday for a total of about 3 hours. This is the biggest class we work with; there are 28 kids in the class. Our focus with the 6^th graders is the arctic biome and how that environment effects and is effected by the oil industry. On Monday we brought in trays of frozen muck meant to simulate permafrost and had the kids build clay houses on them. When we came back on Friday we examined the structures and how they had fared when the “permafrost” melted. We talked a little about how climate change can influence the permafrost layer.

We also talked about what defines the “arctic” (area north of the Arctic Circle, north of the tree line, or where it doesn’t get above 10 degrees Celsius in the summer) and what sort of plant and animal life you can find there. I gave a talk about energy and nutrient cycles within the environment. The coolest thing we did was “blubber mittens.” A blubber mitten is a pair of Ziploc bags nested inside one another and filled with Crisco (any type of fat will do). Then you have the kids compare putting their bare hands in a bucket of cold water to putting in their hands protected by blubber. 

Our Tuesday lecture this week was a training session for something called Salmon Blitz. The volunteers go out two to the streams on the delta on two different days, the first day to set minnow traps and the second day to see what they caught. The types of fish caught and their sizes are important, the goal is to map out where salmon spawn, and where they spend the first few years of their lives before they head to the ocean. I signed up to go out, but I didn’t have time this weekend. Luckily the program goes on for weeks so I should have a chance next weekend!

Most of my office time was spent prepping for the Discovery Room or trying to figure out how to edit the tapes from the previous lecture series. I finally got them converted into a file format that Windows Movie Maker (for Windows XP) would read, and started editing late on Thursday. I did take an online “course” that qualifies me to drive a 15 passenger van on field trips, and I spent my day on Sunday (today) getting CPR and First Aid certified. I also got out of the office on Monday to do some water sampling out on the lake. We took a canoe out to where the glacial runoff starts to mix with the lake water and took temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and nitrogen and phosphorus measurements.

The water was super green that day, apparently you can usually see the bottom though.

 BEAR FACT: Bears don't like surprises. When you are out hiking take precautions to make sure bears can sense you coming.