One of the most exciting parts of our PolarTREC orientation week were the field trips out in the cold. It gave us opportunities to suit up for arctic fieldwork, the chance to experience multi sensory learning of the Alaska permafrost underground layer, and investigate the survival behavior of hibernating wildlife. Lectures by several young scientists, both male and females proved to be an inspiration and a role model for scientific careers for us to share with our students back home. *Museum of the North and University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), hibernation chamber, where we saw Alaskan history and heritage artifacts, such as seal and walrus skin kayaks, as well as holding a sleeping hibernating ground squirrel, part of the Hibernation exhibit. We also saw a live hibernating frog and footage of bears sleeping in hibernation. * A visit to the CH2M HILL Polar Services Cold Storage Warehouse, where we were given an introduction to Clothing, Packing, and Preparing for Safe Work in the Polar Regions, by a researcher named Matt. We learned all the gear and safety equipment we are required to wear and carry during our deployment to the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. * Finally, the highlight of the week: a field excursion to the United States Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) permafrost tunnel, under the guide of Pat Druckenmiller, UAF, and Erin Pettit, UAF and PolarTREC Researcher 2013. Under a sunny and cold afternoon we entered the tunnel to 10,000 to 32,000 years old fossils of bison, mammoth, horses and mastodon, all scattered under the frozen tundra or permanently frozen soil (permafrost). We saw roots, branches; even grasses that grew up on Alaskan soil thousands of years ago. * Through many lectures and presentations by researchers we learned about the effects of climate change and warming up in the release of Carbon into today’s atmosphere. We also visited a local Ice Sculpture Park with ice figures carved out of large blocks of ice using chain saws and other tools. Going out o n this field trip on sometimes -27 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, proved to be very useful and training for our field expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic extremely cold environment.