We have been here for 3 days now, and just celebrated July 4^th, with Seth leading us in what turned out to be an awful, but heartfelt, rendition of God Bless America, in honor of US Independence Day. We have now recovered our energy and the students are pushing forward with project development. So far, the core students are making remarkable progress on their project ideas and we have learned about some fascinating tools and developed some interesting new twists on some old ideas.

As Julian put it during last night’s reflection, ‘there is an energy crackling in the air around us’ as new ideas spring up and conceptual understanding deepens. We all feel it, I think it must be contagious, passed around like a benign virus and lifting us all up. Those of us labeled as PIs are reminding the core students to focus on what they want to know, not what they want to do. They should ask a good question, develop an interesting hypothesis, we will find a way to test it later. Everyone here has been chipping in to help the core students sort through the jumble of ideas and new information rattling around their brains as they create a coherent project.

But their Independence Day is approaching.

Soon they will take full ownership of an idea and will take on the responsibility to see it through to a conclusion. We leave tonight for Duvannyi Yar, where we will lay our hands on 20,000 year old permafrost, pull plant roots from the soils that have been frozen since the Pleistocene, and maybe find a mammoth bone or two. A couple of days after we return, we leave for the tundra. There the core will learn to fly on their own as they chase their favorite ideas across the landscape.

I look forward to tagging along for the ride.