The permanently frozen subsoil, known as permafrost, upon which many Native Alaskan villages rest is melting.
Monday, December 21, 2009
It's a good day.
Today is the winter solstice. Nine more seconds of sunlight tomorrow. Five hours, forty minutes, and nine seconds. Pretty awesome. I am in Minnesota at the moment so I won't be able to report on the affects, but I can only assume the would have been good.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Global warming. Yikes!
This is a recent article from the NY Times discussing global warming and its effects on Native Alaskans.
Alaska’s indigenous people are seeing erosion, rising waters and melting permafrost – and they have sent representatives to Copenhagen to raise the alarm
And here is a related article about some of the specific problems facing Native Alaskan villages. The particular village in the article, Newtok, is part of our school district and the Nelson Island that they plan to move onto is indeed the Nelson Island that I live on. The article states that they are some of the first American refugees of global warming. That's a crazy thought.
Alaska’s indigenous people are seeing erosion, rising waters and melting permafrost – and they have sent representatives to Copenhagen to raise the alarm
And here is a related article about some of the specific problems facing Native Alaskan villages. The particular village in the article, Newtok, is part of our school district and the Nelson Island that they plan to move onto is indeed the Nelson Island that I live on. The article states that they are some of the first American refugees of global warming. That's a crazy thought.
In the words of one wise student "It's global warming really super hard."
(A note: I owe much of this post to B and S, from whom I got the article and the quote)
(A note: I owe much of this post to B and S, from whom I got the article and the quote)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
A weekend with a dozen teenagers may sound like a lot of fun, but... (Part 1/?)
This past weekend I had the privilege to chaperone a group of twelve adolescent students as they went to Bethel to compete in the end of the season robotics competition. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I know that to most people, the thought of 48 consecutive hours with a dozen teenagers sounds torturous. Of course, some parts were ("Chocolate milk makes me fart"), but the insight I gained into my students’ lives was rewarding. The insight into how all of my chaperones must have felt after nights of being responsible for me was, well, I wouldn’t say rewarding, but, rather, karmic.
Along with another teacher, Derek, we have been coaching our school's robotics team. Using Legos and laptops, the students are given a task to be completed by a robot created from the Legos. It is truly fantastic stuff. Lego has been involved in robotics since I was in elementary school, but I hadn't seen any of their kits since then. Technological advances have done wonders for the possibilities now available to student programmers. As well as standard programming like making motors move forward and backwards and variable rates, students also have at their disposal light, ultrasonic, touch, and sound sensors. Programs can become incredibly complex incredibly fast. A sample program and robot students made was fashioned like a guitar and made different pitches as the student moved a Lego platform up and down the neck of the guitar. For the past few months our team has been designing and programming their robot to complete a series of tasks in a specified time frame. This is a nationally recognized competition and a win would take us to Anchorage for State with an opportunity to continue on the Nationals in Atlanta.
Our plan was to leave Thursday afternoon. A total of fifteen of us were traveling: 12 students, Derek and myself, and our female chaperone, Monica. Travelling for school sports and activities is slightly different here in Tununak. Being 150 miles from Bethel, and without roads, piling into the trusty yellow school busses is not an option. Instead, we pile into a series of small planes. The order goes out to the airline and they send whatever planes they feel would work. This all seems pretty simple, but what I am coming to love about working here is that absolutely nothing is simple. Variables abound: weather (wind, rain, snow, etc.), availability of planes, God's Will, random miscommunications... The list goes on. So the plan is the make your plans then be ready. You never really know what will happen until the call from the plane comes over the VHF radios that lace the town.
"Ten minutes."
At this point the mad rush begins. The plane will be on the ground in ten minutes. This usually happens plus or minus an hour from the time the you and the airline had decided on. Students are plucked from classes. I am plucked from class; my sub had been standing by. Don full winter gear for travel: district policy - you never know if you will need to land in another village to be shuttled home by snowmachine (ie snowmobile) should bad weather close your runway. Boots, snowpants, winter coat, hat, mittens, the whole kit. Students pile into the sled behind the snowmachine with their bags, me on the snowmachine. Cruise down the frozen river to the airstrip. Cram into a Cessna 207 for the hour flight to Bethel. Seat belts on, unzip coat, engines roar as the plane takes off.
Once landed in Bethel we gather our luggage and pile into one of the district school busses. We are shuttled to the district offices (DO) to wait for school for the elementary school across the parking lot to end for the day so that we can move in. Keeping up with the pragmatic way of life out here, we will be sleeping on the floors of classrooms in Gladys Jung Elementary School. If you think this is strange, you may find it even stranger that this is common practice for everyone travelling in the district: special education itinerants, social workers, mentors, etc. as well as all travelling sports teams and coaches. At any one time in Tununak, we usually have a few guests a week camping out on the floors of our rooms. As our students mill about the DO I am informed by more than one person that a large cold front is coming in and that the airports aren’t planning on flying back out to the coast until Tuesday. Just a reminder that it is currently Thursday. That would mean six days in Bethel. As excited as I was to be in Bethel, that seemed to me to be about three days too many. As four o'clock rolls around and we gather our bags and hike over to the school. I thank the teacher for offering us her floor and promise we will have everything back in place in the morning (they have school after all).
Along with another teacher, Derek, we have been coaching our school's robotics team. Using Legos and laptops, the students are given a task to be completed by a robot created from the Legos. It is truly fantastic stuff. Lego has been involved in robotics since I was in elementary school, but I hadn't seen any of their kits since then. Technological advances have done wonders for the possibilities now available to student programmers. As well as standard programming like making motors move forward and backwards and variable rates, students also have at their disposal light, ultrasonic, touch, and sound sensors. Programs can become incredibly complex incredibly fast. A sample program and robot students made was fashioned like a guitar and made different pitches as the student moved a Lego platform up and down the neck of the guitar. For the past few months our team has been designing and programming their robot to complete a series of tasks in a specified time frame. This is a nationally recognized competition and a win would take us to Anchorage for State with an opportunity to continue on the Nationals in Atlanta.
Our plan was to leave Thursday afternoon. A total of fifteen of us were traveling: 12 students, Derek and myself, and our female chaperone, Monica. Travelling for school sports and activities is slightly different here in Tununak. Being 150 miles from Bethel, and without roads, piling into the trusty yellow school busses is not an option. Instead, we pile into a series of small planes. The order goes out to the airline and they send whatever planes they feel would work. This all seems pretty simple, but what I am coming to love about working here is that absolutely nothing is simple. Variables abound: weather (wind, rain, snow, etc.), availability of planes, God's Will, random miscommunications... The list goes on. So the plan is the make your plans then be ready. You never really know what will happen until the call from the plane comes over the VHF radios that lace the town.
"Ten minutes."
At this point the mad rush begins. The plane will be on the ground in ten minutes. This usually happens plus or minus an hour from the time the you and the airline had decided on. Students are plucked from classes. I am plucked from class; my sub had been standing by. Don full winter gear for travel: district policy - you never know if you will need to land in another village to be shuttled home by snowmachine (ie snowmobile) should bad weather close your runway. Boots, snowpants, winter coat, hat, mittens, the whole kit. Students pile into the sled behind the snowmachine with their bags, me on the snowmachine. Cruise down the frozen river to the airstrip. Cram into a Cessna 207 for the hour flight to Bethel. Seat belts on, unzip coat, engines roar as the plane takes off.
Once landed in Bethel we gather our luggage and pile into one of the district school busses. We are shuttled to the district offices (DO) to wait for school for the elementary school across the parking lot to end for the day so that we can move in. Keeping up with the pragmatic way of life out here, we will be sleeping on the floors of classrooms in Gladys Jung Elementary School. If you think this is strange, you may find it even stranger that this is common practice for everyone travelling in the district: special education itinerants, social workers, mentors, etc. as well as all travelling sports teams and coaches. At any one time in Tununak, we usually have a few guests a week camping out on the floors of our rooms. As our students mill about the DO I am informed by more than one person that a large cold front is coming in and that the airports aren’t planning on flying back out to the coast until Tuesday. Just a reminder that it is currently Thursday. That would mean six days in Bethel. As excited as I was to be in Bethel, that seemed to me to be about three days too many. As four o'clock rolls around and we gather our bags and hike over to the school. I thank the teacher for offering us her floor and promise we will have everything back in place in the morning (they have school after all).
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