Summary
The students are spending the morning working on their projects. Several groups have videos to finish up which will be posted to the respective day's blogs as soon as I receive them. Group 1 took several days worth of conductivity measurements and summarized those results which are posted below. Other groups have rocks and mineral or plant identification projects to finish. 5 students have blog posts to do from July 5-7. Please check previous blog posts throughout the day for these updates. Students must finish their work by noon however videos will take me several hours to upload due to limited internet.
Greenlandic Food and Games
The Greenlanders introduced us to some traditional food and herbal tea. We had salmon, shrimp and raw whale! Raw whale doesn't taste like fish and the blubber part is soft and the skin is almost crunchy. Then they showed us some traditional Inuit games and the Danes also showed us a game which Dana and I like to call the "Danish Sandwich".
Raw Whale Skin and Blubber
Charlotte, Fie and Cecilie playing a Danish game
Mike Avery and Kasper playing a traditional Greenlandic game
Aggu and Agnes playing a traditional Alaskan game
Group 1's Conductivity Summary
Day 4 & Day 6 July 2, 2012 & July 4, 2012 Group 1 Alex Schmidt (US) Bonna Berthelsen (Grl) Fie Thorup Hansen (DK) Kunuk Gundel (Grl)
Conductivity Report
Questions: What is the conductivity of water in all the different samples we collect? Which has the least conductivity and which has the most?
Procedures: Earlier this week Group 1 visited Russel Glacier. While there we collected a sample of the water to compare to our previous results with the landfill, lake Ferguson, and the tap water. We also gathered a sample of water from another unknown glacier.
Data & Results: - Standard 138/200 microS/cm - Russell Glacier 1: 8.6 microS/cm - Russell Glacier 2: 13.6 microS/cm - Tap Water: 73.5 microS/cm
Conclusion: Group 1’s conclusion is that Russel glacier had the least amount of ions, and that the drinking water had the greatest amount of ions.
Problems: We found difficulty trying to get the instruments to work properly. However, we took these results when it did function properly.
Student Blogs
Nivi Amossen, Uummannaq, Greenland
About me My name is Nivi. K. Amossen and I’m 23 years old. I was born in Uummannaq northern Greenland, but me, my mom, stepfather and my little brother moved to Nuuk in 2005. I play soccer in my sparetime and I’m Nationalplayer in Greenland. Now I live in Sisimiut to study. On August I’m going to start 2nd year in HTX (Technical “high School”).
Today’s activity We were supposed to go to Lake Ferguson looking for permafrost, but it was rain the day before yesterday, so the scientists changed their plans. Then we stayed here and continue working with our species. We also have competition about plant.
Dana Cucci
Dana Cucci, East Hampton, New York
After 9 or 10 days in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland we have done A LOT so today was just a day to relax. It definitely came at the right time because I am burned out. So far we have gone to the ice multiple times and learned a lot from chatting with a bunch of different scientist. Everyday we've had a jam packed scheduele filled with traveling, video making, labs, and of course fun! We have done sooooo much hiking and some how the direction we always go is up. Even when we get to the top of a mountain, theres another going up. despite the constant up hill trek, it has led to some incredible views. Yesterday when we went to the ice we saw one of my favorites yet. I don't know what made it better, the view of the ice sheet or the endless mountains with spiratic lakes. I'm from a very flat region so to be able to see mountains as far as the eye can see is pretty incredible for me. After dinner the Greenlanic students prepared some traditional food. It started off pretty normal with just some raw schell fish. They showed me how they pick off the head, then the tail, and finally the legs. Dipped in a little soy sauce, it tasted excellent. Next they brought our the mattack. Mattack is another way of saying whale. Yes whale. I was a little hesitant at first but I didn't think about it and just dipped it in some soy sauce and ate it. The actual taste is pretty good. The only thing that took a little getting over was the hard chewy texture so the greenlandic students suggested I eat a little bread with it. Once I did that I really liked it! After we ate it was time for some quality bonding. For our group that involves dual competition testing eachothers strength and skill. My personal favorive was one we called the human sandwich game. One person lays on the floor the next person lays on top in the opposite direction and the top person lays the same direction as the bottom person making a human sandwich. The person in the middle has to try to escape as the top and bottom people try to keep them from moving. When our three danish girls did it they made a Danish Sandwich. We could not stop laughing and everyone was having a blast. A few months ago I never in a million years would have thought that I'd be in Greenland on the ice sheet or eating whale or getting really close with complete strangers from around the world and some manage to have as much fun as we do! I'm so glad to be in such a great place with such great people.