Field Notes
During, before, and after the field course, Polaris students and faculty share their thoughts through journal entries.
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Learning to Speak
I couldn’t believe it was me, but there I was, talking at American Chemical Society (ACS) session on Modern Analytical Approaches for the Characterization of Natural Organic Matter in the Environment.
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Polaris reunion at the American Geophysical Union conference
The 2014 American Geophysical Union(AGU) Conference in San Francisco was a wonderful experience for the Polaris Project as well as for outreach to educators.
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Presentation Adrenaline or, That’s a Charming Polygon! Here, Look at Mine
The night before my poster at the American Geophysical Union meeting, I barely slept. I had expected nerves and excitement, but I surprised myself with the level of anticipation I felt as I tossed and drifted in the hotel bed.
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The Mud-Filled Path to Graduate School
From the muddy wetlands of the Hudson River in New York to the permafrost-fed streams of the Siberian Arctic, my path to graduate school--has quite literally--included trekking through mud up to my knees.
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Preparing for the Ball
In the short term, I will need to communicate clearly at AGU when I present my poster in December. I will need to not only explain the research I did, but also answer questions from scientists who know far more about this field than I do. In some ways, it
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I’ve Got Gas, Let’s Leave…
Streams make up only a few percent of the total surface area of a watershed, but as we have seen with lakes in ponds in Siberia, small parts of the landscape can have disproportionate impacts.
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There’s liver in it
I think of Leana almost like our Russian “mother:” she always makes sure we don’t head out to the field without a lunch, often puts out our favorite snacks for late night lab work, and looks out for us with a watchful eye.
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These Questions Remain
In the aftermath of our symposium presentations at the Northeast Science Station, I thought about what further analyses to run on the data I collected in the tundra. I have found a few exciting initial patterns, but I have to work much harder to understand my more complicated measurements. I
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Home Safely
We have returned safely back home, with mixed feelings, at least in my case. I’m happy to be back, but miss the friends we left behind at the Northeast Science Station, and the immersion in a world unlike anything else I ever get to experience.…
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The Calm after the Storm
The core group has been gone from Cherskiy for not an hour, and already an eerie silence has settled over the Northeast Science Station. Craig Connoly, Seth Spawn, and myself, along with some German students, are all that remain here.
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Bringing it all together…
The last 3 weeks for me have been a whirlwind of mapping and on-the-fly spatial analysis. In a geospatial sense, our tundra expedition had landed in almost completely uncharted territories.
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Making Outreach Connections
Today was a very special day for me. I was able to meet with one of the local elementary school teachers in Cherskiy.
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Expectations Exceeded
All of the expectations that I had of the tundra did not amount to the beauty and indescribable features of the landscape nor the vast variety of questions that met my scientific interests.
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Out of the Field and into the Lab
Since we have returned form the tundra the core students have been working endlessly on preparing their samples and collecting the various measurements in the laboratories at the station.
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Voyage South
I knew I did not want to leave the tundra. As I stood with friends on the cliff next to the sand spit where the barge was parked, I leaned into the wind from the south. Something was welling up inside me. At the time, it came out as song—all
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