Videos from Igloolik

While in Igloolik, I could not upload videos, however, I can now.  Here are some videos of Igloolik that may interest you (clicking on the link will open a new window).

Walking (more like crawling) into an igloo.

Preparing the dogs and komatik.

The Dream Team hard at work.

Our last day

Friday was our last day in Igloolik.

Hamlet of Igloolik sign.

I was still a little sick, so it was nice that it was a shortened day with the students. 

Getting to school in the morning.

 We started off in Yvonne's grade 7 class, reviewing the pyranometer, taking measurements outside, and doing the three demonstration stations.

Levelling the pyranometer.

 Then we made thermometers with Jeena's grade 2s and repeated the three demos with Yvonne K.'s grade 5s.  For Darlene's grade 3s, we reviewed the measurements they are going to make and the instruments they will be using, then did two of our demonstrations: Cartesian divers and clouds in a jar.

Making clouds, one last time.

After lunch we only had Meeka's grade 4s--the second batch.  We brought them outside and taught them about the windsock, compass, and anemometer.  We planed a meeting with the teachers after school to ensure that they knew what their students would be doing and how to help them.  During the time between, Niall and I put thermometers up outside the grade 1, 2, 3, and 4 classrooms and outside the school's front door.  Thank goodness for snowdrifts--we wouldn't have been able to put up some of the thermometers otherwise!

Putting up a thermometer outside Pat's grade 1 class.

While it is safe to say that we taught some students about weather, the atmosphere, and ways to measure relevant variables, they definitely taught us just as much.  To all of my new friends at Ataguttaluk Elementary School, ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ (thank you).  I am sure they'd reply with ᐃᓛᓕ (pronounced "i-laa-li", you're welcome).

Syllabics and their Latin sounds.

Friday night we went over to Dave (the music teacher) and Piotrek's (a high school teacher) house for caribou stew.  It was absolutely phenomenal!  The meat tasted a lot like beef, except I found it to be a lot softer to eat, but maybe that's just because it was in a stew.

Saturday morning, we headed up to the Igloolik airport to travel back home.  On our way, we passed the iconic inukshuks.

Inukshuks between the airport and Igloolik.

One last look; Igloolik from the airport.

The plane that took us from Igloolik to Iqaluit.

 We left Igloolik at 11 AM and flew Igloolik to Iqaluit to Ottawa to Toronto.  We reached Toronto around 9:10 PM, where I waited until 12:10 AM Sunday to catch a bus to my house.

Iqaluit from the plane.

Last view of the north.

I was sad to go, but I am glad to be back in London, where I don't need a giant parka to go outside.  On the bright side, I might get the opportunity to return to wrap up the science project with the students in May.

Clouds in bottles and licking igloos

Today started out in Veera's grade 6 class.  We reviewed how to make and record measurements, then set up three stations around the room for them to rotate between.  Ashley had them make a thermometer, Niall made Cartesian divers, and my group made a cloud in a bottle.

Cloud in a bottle.

Next we headed to Pat's grade 1s for the last time this week.  We made thermometers with them.  We premade a mixture of water and rubbing alcohol (use the same amount of each) with some food colouring to make the liquid easy to see and filled the bottom 1-2 cm of a plastic bottle.  The grade 1s then rolled a ball of clay, flattened it, and poked a hole through the centre with a pencil.  We put a straw through the hole and then put the straw into the liquid in the bottle. We pulled the clay tight over the sides of the bottle and pinched it around the straw (to trap the air inside).  And there you have it--a finished thermometer (minus the calibration).  The heat from the students' hands is enough to make the liquid level rise above the top of the straw!

A finished thermometer with the liquid level fairly high.

During recess, I looked around their classroom for a bit and saw something that caught me off-guard; their food guide is different than ours.  In the "meat" section, they have things like whales, seals, caribou, and walrus.  

Nunavut food guide.

 After recess we took Jeena's grade 2s back outside to look for a spot to put their thermometer (for their measurements).  We finished off the class by making weather puppets.  We had sun, raindrop, cloud, and rainbow shapes to choose from.  Most of the kids picked rainbows.

Making a rainbow weather puppet.

 Then we headed to Darlene's grade 3 class to review how to take wind measurements and make thermometers.  When we came back for lunch today, the restaurant was busy, so we immediately went over to the grocery store to buy lunch meat, cheese, bananas, and salad, so we could have a proper lunch and be energized for the rest of the day.

With Yvonne I.'s grade 5s after lunch, we sorted photos into groups of how much solar radiation would reach Earth.  One girl in my group ended up moving over to Niall's group.  I don't think she liked me very much.  One of the times we visited earlier in the week, she was handing out candy to the other students and her teacher at the time, Leah, told her to put it away.  Today I was sitting at a table with my group (including her).  While Ashley was trying to start the class, this girl was handing out candy to the others at the table.  I ask her to put it away and she completely ignored me.  I asked her if Leah would be okay with her having it.  She nodded.  Then I questioned, "If I asked Leah right now, would she say it is okay?"  "Don't!" she cried.  "If you aren't allowed to have it in class with Leah, then you aren't allowed to have it in class right now," I replied.  She reluctantly put the candy back into her pocket.

After the picture activity, the class sat on the floor together for Niall's solar radiation presentation, then we split back up into our groups to learn about the pyranometer and the measurements they will be making.  One of the boys in my group was sitting very nicely on a chair, waiting for others to join us, when this girl came up behind him, tilted his chair, and pulled it out from under him.  He fell to the ground and immediately whined (to her) for his chair back.  I told her to give the chair back and find one that no one was using.  She just looked at me with a who-do-you-think-you-are look.  The boy said he was okay; he could sit on his knees and still work at the table, so there was no point in forcing her to give the chair back.  However, I did put on my stern voice, looked directly at her, and said, "That was not nice.  Not nice at all.  I do not like that type of behaviour."  We started the activity and when I looked up, I noticed she left my group and joined Niall's.  I can understand not liking me after hearing my stern voice--it has made first year university students cry!

We were in for a surprise when we went to Meeka's grade 4 class!  The grade fours that were there were not the ones that we had been seeing earlier in the week.  Apparently the principal wants both grade four classes to do the experiments.  Thank goodness we didn't bring all of the stuff home last night (like we have been doing).  We skipped an introduction to speed through what the atmosphere, wind, and instruments they will be using are and the awesome water experiment.  We had a spare afterwards and Meeka was okay with us using more of her time, so we played the name game with the students.  One student, Edna, had a perfect shirt for today!

Edna's shirt

 To end the school day, we went to Paul's grade 7 class, reviewed the instruments, and set up the three demos: home-made thermometers, Cartesian divers, and a cloud in a bottle.

Explaining what we were about to do to make a cloud.

 To make a cloud, we used a large glass container, a plastic glove, a little bit of warm water, and matches.  Make sure the mouth of the container is large enough to fit your hand in easily and the opening of the glove is large enough to pull over the mouth of the container.  You also need someone to help you with this.  Put the glove on and put the water into the container.  Strike a match and toss it into the water.  Quickly put your gloved hand into the container and have your helper pull the edges of the glove over the lip of the container as fast as possible to trap the smoke.  You now have all of the materials you need to make a cloud inside the jar: water and something for it to nucleate on--smoke.  Hold onto the glove and very quickly pull your hand part way out of the container (make sure not to rip the glove or pull it off the lip).  Doing this creates a low pressure inside the jar and you should see a cloud form.  Sometimes it is easier to see with a flashlight.

After class, and a good supper (honey garlic "Oktoberfest sausage" with rice and veggies), I took a walk up to the high school to see the igloos again.  The sunset was very pretty.

Sunset behind igloos.

Sunset behind the high school.

 They made quite the progress on the igloos.  The circle on the ground a few days ago is now one igloo room and the igloo that looked like it had a few loose blocks has a doorway and part of a second room.

A few days ago, this igloo was merely a circle on the ground.

A few days ago, this igloo only had one room.

The igloo above from a different angle.

 Before I left London, I told people I was going to Igloolik, pronounced "igloo"-"lick".  A friend and I joked around about the name for a bit and somewhere in there I said that if I saw an igloo, I'd lick it.  So, now I can say that I've licked an igloo in Igloolik--twice.  The first lick was mostly a mouthful of clean, refreshing snow (tasted like good water).  For the second one, I made sure to pick a spot that wasn't really a snow drift, but looked more like the ice blocks that the igloos are made out of.  My tongue got stuck a little, but nothing drastic (I don't think I lost any skin, but my tongue sure was frozen for a while!).  I couldn't really taste anything through the cold.

Snow drifts.

Panorama of sunset behind the high school.

 It was really cold out.  So cold out, my camera didn't want to work.  If I tried taking a video, it would pretend it was dying so that I would put it back in my warm pocket.  The panorama pictures are a function on the camera.  You can see in the picture below that it didn't quite mesh the pictures together correctly (there is an obvious line that doesn't match near the right hand side.  As I took more pictures, this effect got worse.

My shutter finger got pretty cold too, so I can't really complain about the camera.  At one point my hands were so cold, I couldn't feel what my fingers were doing, and--even if I looked at them--I couldn't force my fingers to put my camera in my pocket (my left hand then came to the rescue). At whatever temperature it was (probably about -19 °C) it only takes a minute for your hands to get like that!  I think I might have got slight frost bite in my right index finger; there is a small pressure point under my nail that hurts when I type.

Panorama of sunset with an igloo.

After visiting the igloos and seeing the sun set, I walked out onto the bay to take pictures of the moon and the hamlet from the ocean.

The moon, looking out toward ice covered ocean.

North side of Igloolik.

Southwest side of Igloolik.

I watched my footing as I walked back to the inn and saw this huge crack in the snow that went as far as I could see in both directions.  I'm not sure if I walked out on it like that or if it cracked while I was out there, but the ice felt pretty secure while I was walking.

Crack in snow over the bay.

Hump day

In one word, today was rough (but still fun).  No wonder Wednesdays are "hump days"!  I started to get sick yesterday evening.  Last night I kept waking up from fevers, coughs, and Charlie horses in my calves (probably from mild dehydration; it is very dry up here, so you loose a lot more water to the air than at home).

Today started out with Leah's grade 5s.  They were the first class that we had when we came to the school, so I remember a lot of their names and I think that helps in the class running smoothly and being more fun.  After refreshing their memories with the pyranometers (a word I have yet to say correctly in front of a class despite practising for hours Monday night), we did an "albedo lab".  Albedo is the proportion of original light/radiation that reflects from a surface.  Even though we call it an "albedo" lab, the students are measuring radiation absorption (which is related to the albedo).  To do the lab, they make pockets out of two materials from: aluminum foil, multiple colours of construction paper, black or white cardstock, sandpaper, or cellophane.  They put a thermometer in each pocket and aim a lamp at the thermometers.  They record the temperature every two minutes (for 10 minutes) and then discuss the results as a group.

Albedo lab set up.

 Then we went to Jeena's grade 2 class for a half hour where we pretended we were air molecules.  When I read the activity last week I thought it was silly, but today I lead the activity and it was a ridiculous amount of fun.  The kids just got so into it!  We also had them use thermometers to measure the temperature of various glasses of water around their room.

After the grade 2s, we spent a half hour with both Darlene's grade 3s and Meeka's grade 4s.  With both of the classes, we taught them how to use their instruments: a wind sock, compass, and anemometer (measures wind speed), then we went outside to practice.

Grade 3s showing me they know how to use the instruments.

Grade 4s measuring wind velocity.

Grade 4s running inside with their instruments. 

We came back to the resaurant for lunch, but it was packed, so we ended up eating a couple of quickly made peanut butter sandwiches on our walk to the school.  In the afternoon we started off with Tamie's grade 6s (a very energetic group that doesn't behave too well), followed by Paul's grade 7s (who ask silly questions, but for the most part, behave really well).  We refreshed how to do calculations and use the pyranometer with them, then took them outside to take some measurements.

The third period after lunch was Pat's grade 1s.  They are so refreshing to visit!  Every time we come into their classroom they are eagerly waiting, with huge smiles on their faces, and greet us with "Hi Niall, Mel, and Ashley!"  We finished up the experiment we started yesterday and put a thermometer outside for them to take their measurements in the weeks to come.

We ended the day with explaining the pyranometers and taking solar insolation measurements outside with Veera's grade 6 class.

When we got back to our rooms, I took an hour nap.  I could have slept for longer, but after missing a decent lunch, I didn't want to miss supper.  I would have gone to bed by now (with how tired I am), but we were told that the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) usually come out around 10 PM on clear nights and tonight was clear.  We haven't seen them yet (including tonight), but it has been snowing every night, with heavy cloud cover.  I really hope we get to see them while we are up here!

While I've been up here, I've managed to pick up a new word in Inuktitut (technically "igloo" is Inuktitut for "house", "inuk" means person, and "inuit" means "people").  I don't know how to spell it, but it is pronounced "coy" (like the English synonym of shy) "N" (the name of the English letter) "nemy" (like the last syllable of the English word "enemy", with an n sound at the front).  There is a faint pause between the syllables.  The double "n" sound messes me up a bit and sometimes I mispronounce it as "coy"-"n"-"emy".  Once you've mastered it, you can say "thank you" in Igloolik's dialect of Inuktitut.

Experiment revealed and after school adventure

Today we started with Vera’s grade 6 class, where we introduced ourselves and the pyranometer.  Afterward, we went to Pat’s grade 1 class.  First we pretended we were little molecules in the cold night air moving very slowly.  As the sun came out we got more energy and sped up.  It got warmer still and we moved around faster and faster until *FREEZE* it was night again.

Pat's grade ones pretending to be molecules.

 After the molecule settled down, the kids went to different stations in their room to measure the temperature of various cups of water.  After our 30 minute spare, we went to Darlene's grade 3 class.  We introduced ourselves and talked about wind, then did the awesome experiment (that you should definitely try at home).

Take 4 bottles, fill two with cold water and two with hot water.  Dye the water so you can tell which is which.  We dyed the hot yellow and the cold blue.

Dying the hot water yellow.

 I then put one of the hot bottles on top of the cold (so the water could mix) and one of the cold bottles on top of the hot (what do you think happened?).  I was able to flip the bottles over by placing a card over the bottle's mouth, flipping it upside down, then letting go of the card.  The kids were amazed that the water didn't all spill out!

Ta da! A card holds the water inside the bottle, even when the bottle is upside-down.

 And finally, the spectacular results!

The system on the left started with cold on top and the system on the right started with hot on top.

 Since cold water is more dense than warm water, it sinks to the bottom of the bottles.  If the cold is at the top, it will flow to the bottom and the two colours will mix (as seen on the left).  If the cold starts at the bottom, it stays put.  If we left the two systems for long enough, all of the bottles would contain the same shade of green water, as the water in the bottles came to an equilibrium.

After lunch, we visited Leah's grade 5s, Tammie's grade 6s, Yvonne K.'s grade 5s, and Yvonne W.'s grade 7s.  With the classes we already saw, we showed them how to use their pyranometer and went outside to do some tests.  With Yvonne K.'s grade 5s, we sorted pictures of the sky according to how much radiation we got and Niall explained radiation.

Sorting through photos.

Niall giving a presentation about the sun and radiation.

 While at school, I did find the bulletin board describing how to build an igloo.

How to build an igloo.

 After school, Maren (the grade 4 teacher) invited us to meet "The Dream Team"--her dog sled team.  We took Skidoos out to greet the eight beautiful dogs.  For those of you that read yesterday's post, the dogs out on the ice around the town are only for dog sled purposes.

The Dream Team lead dogs.

Four more members of The Dream Team.

The remaining two members.

 Aurora (pointed out later) is my favourite.  She is the only one with a substantial amount of brown in her coat and such a sweetie pie!  It is a lot of work to own a dog sled of your own!  We had to set up all the lines, greet the dogs, convince some to come out of their house, put on their harness, then rope them into the sled.

Setting up the lines.

Preparing the sled.

Two excited dogs!

Ashley greeting Aurora.

Hiding from the harness.

Ashley and Maren putting on a harness.

Aurora, after I put her harness on.

 To set the dogs up, they are first each clipped to the sled on a very short rope so that it is difficult for them to run off while you try to get the remaining dogs on.  Then we brought the long ropes to the dogs and clipped them in.

The Dream Team all clipped onto the sled.

And we're off!  A view from the sled itself.

 These dogs are so smart, they don't need anyone to tell them where to go (they just follow the Skidoos), but they do need encouragement every now and again.  After we got back from the ride, we returned the dogs to their chains, took the ropes off of the sled, cleaned up their area, fed them, and said goodbye.  The whole extravaganza took us 2.5-3 hours.  Now imagine doing  all of that work alone (which is what Maren does quite often)!

Luna (left) and Aurora (right).