Researcher Campbell visited two alma maters on April 3rd as part of an outreach effort in midcoast Maine. He arrived at his K-8 grade school, Nobleboro Central School, with slides ready to go and a plan to explain the Mount Hunter Ice Core project. I was quick to point out to current students the seat that he actually used in the late 80s and early 90s in the science room. Technology has changed a little bit since then. I can't remember what computers, if any, we had in the classrooms at Nobleboro at that point, but I go all they way back to the Commodore 64 days!!
What a treat to have Researcher Campbell return to his 6th, 7th and 8th grade science classroom to offer students a program on his work and student aspirations.
In the afternoon he took his "old" junior high teacher and PolarTREC partner, me, to his high school alma mater, Lincoln Academy. At a short after school meeting with the Climate Action Club I provided a short introduction and then Seth presented his research to about 30 members of the club. There was a great question about the chemistry behind core analysis. We could have used a little more time, but after school activities and sports went into full swing after about 30 minutes. We'll certainly go back.
Flubber was the word of the day as the mixture of white glue and borax is used routinely by Seth to help him model and understand glacier movement. For today's outreach students only watched lab based Flubber videos, but we have promised Nobleboro students that next fall we will build land contour models and predict and then monitor the Flubber flow. I will have students do some research on edible Flubber and see where that takes us.
Flubber is used by glacier scientists to help them analyze and predict glacier movement. This photo, taken from Researcher Campbells presentation, shows students how glacier ice might move at a divide.
Students were asked to move as glaciers do, based on terrain, slope and land forms underneath.
Sandwiched between Nobleboro and Lincoln was a third outreach at Bristol Consolidated School where we met with 7th and 8th grade students from Bristol and visiting South Bristol School. We were welcomed by teacher Kevin Crafts, tech coordinator John Cough and South Bristol teacher Jason Bigonia. John, Kevin, Jason and I are backpacking compatriots, so it is always fun to get together. Thanks to them for extending an invitation to Seth and I. Seth's high school soccer coach is a math teacher at the school, so it was quite fun to watch them catch up on matters.
Before the Bristol School presentation Researcher Campbell enjoyed some time with his high school soccer coach, Donovan York, a teacher at the Bristol School. Students had some fun with gear, especially the boot with crampon and the expedition parka.
What a treat it was to have three attentive groups during the day. We could have used more time for sure. If anyone has an edible Flubber recipe, then please send it along.