As undergrads in the Polaris Project we have been given the rare and exciting opportunity to perform original scientific research in a very unique setting. I arrived without a clue as to what I wanted to research, which was somewhat overwhelming and stress inducing. In previous courses I have studied Arctic sciences, but always using someone else’s data. I have never had the opportunity to do original ecological research in the field. Although it is exciting and I feel lucky, it is also somewhat intimidating.

It has been an incredible experience to witness the Arctic environmental system that I have studied for the past couple years, from my mosquito-free classroom in Worcester, Massachusetts. Every moment here is a chance to learn and the started the instant we arrived. In the past five days each of us has gone from some foggy idea of our research interests to a working project. We wasted no time.

Every trip into the field was an opportunity to explore our questions. Seeing the environmental processes that we have all read so much about brought clarity and context and allowed us to ask more questions.  At the bulldozer experimentation site we saw the topographical effects of accelerated permafrost thaw in person. Even though I read about these effects, I had never pictured such drastic change and such deep craters from thawing ice wedges.

After our first full day of introductions to our new environment- our scientific playground- we each met one on one with each of the PIs to discuss our project ideas. I began this “speed dating” experience with a range of ideas without direction, and an hour later my project question emerged. That morning at breakfast I had overheard our PIs Sue and Andy discussing how active layer thaw depth (the layer of soil that thaws seasonally and sits on top of the permafrost) varied tremendously over just meter depending on the vegetation cover type. When I met with our PIs I mentioned how I thought this was fascinating and from there my project began. Each ten minute meeting my project evolved more and more, probably what would take days or more if I were working on this alone.

We were asked to develop conceptual models for each of our projects and share them with each other. We have posted them up on the wall and they are ever evolving. I have learned so much from listening to my peers and our conversations have revealed room for collaboration. We are each producing our own project, but little parts of each of our conceptual models overlap. Collectively we are taking a system science approach.

Today was the first day that we split up to work in teams on our individual  projects. It is incredible that a spark of an idea a few days ago has led to data collection and experimental manipulation and real science is underway. We will all inevitably continue to edit, develop and evolve our projects but original work is on its way.