Climate Change and Creative Expression Class
The climate change science portion of the course included guest lectures by university scientists, hands-on experiments and field trips to research sites. Students made a wintertime field trip to BNZ LTER where monitoring of climate, vegetation and permafrost is performed and collected tree cores to age the trees. Back in the BNZ LTER lab students counted tree rings and asked questions about the LTER.
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| Students pulling a permafrost sensor at BNZ (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Coring trees to determine age is difficult when trees are frozen (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Successful tree core! (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Back in the BNZ lab on the UAF campus, students count tree rings to determine their age (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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During a guest class by UAF graduate student Dave Runfola, students discovered how slight increases in water temperature might increase fish stress by measuring goldfish breathing rates.
PHOTO: Counting breathing rates of goldfish in warm vs. cool water to determine which is more stressful (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Another field trip was made to the UAF Large Animal Research Station to learn about temperature adaptations and climate change effects on arctic wildlife such as muskoxen and caribou.
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| Keeping warm on a field trip to the Large Animal Research Station (LARS) (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Befriending a muskox (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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LARS technician Pete Reynoldson shows students a cannula, which enables sampling of the muskox rumen, the specialized stomach where fibrous plant material is digested by microbes (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Pulling a rumen sample (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Classroom topics included climate change science and permafrost, with a lesson in paleontology of Alaska showing how climate has dramatically impacted fauna and flora over long time spans using hands-on exercises with fossils.
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UAF Museum paleontologist Pat Druckenmiller helps students identify dinosaur fossils during his lesson on how climate change in ancient Alaska affected the flora and fauna (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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A creative dance unit gave students the chance to gain dance and performance skills while reviewing science concepts. Students learned about the foundational dance elements of time, space and energy
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Dance instructor Krista Katalenich (UAF Grad Student in Northern Studies) explains the foundational dance elements of time, space and energy (photo by Tom Moran, Alaska EPSCoR)
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They explored these dance elements through exercises that tied together concepts about the environment such as glaciers forming and melting or river ice breaking up
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| Krista Katalenich leads the students in a dance warm-up (photo by Tom Moran, Alaska EPSCoR)
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Experimenting with creative movement on the theme of glaciers, students are joined by instructors Krista Katalenich and Mary Beth Leigh (photo by Tom Moran, Alaska EPSCoR)
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Students learned to create dances with a beginning, middle and end based on environmental themes. For the final performance, students worked together to create their own dance movements using knowledge of the dance elements gained throughout the class.
In the creative writing portion of the class, students developed skills of observation and language precision through writing exercises involving the five senses, active verbs and concrete nouns, invention, imagination, and memory. Each student wrote a portfolio of poems and responses to the field trips and science activities, and practice reading poetry under the guidance of writing teacher Cindy Hardy
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Creative writing teacher Cindy Hardy (UAF Developmental English faculty member) coaches student in poetry reading in preparation for the show (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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The writings were collected from each student and combined into a booklet at the end of the session and were adapted for a final performance.
Alaska Native knowledge was incorporated into the course through a visit by Athabaskan elder Walter Carlo. He shared stories and recollections of his life in Alaska, including his observations of how climate change has impacted life by altering subsistence fishing and hunting. An Inupiaq dance group lead by Sean Topkok taught students traditional dances about seal hunting and igloo building, answered questions and discussed how climate change is affecting Inupiaq villages by reduced sea ice causing less productive seal hunting and coastal erosion requiring that houses and villages be relocated.
The final performance was developed through brainstorming exercises by the students, and a script was then shaped by the instructors using student poetry.
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Making costumes for the final production (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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..... and rehearsed intensively after school in preparation for the show .....
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| Artistic Director Ira Hardy working with students on their lines (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Rehearsing the Inupiaq seal hunting dance, lead by Sean Topkok (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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Students on a rehearsal break pay homage to Tunnel Man, the permafrost superhero! (photo by Mary Beth Leigh)
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The show integrated theater, poetry, dance (Alaska Native and contemporary creative movement), live music and video. The show was performed to the public on May 16, 2009, under the artistic direction of Ira Hardy.
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