While the rest of us abuse our air conditioning as we hunker down for the Tucson summer, Svea Anderson will travel north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, where the sun never sets and the temperature never rises.
Anderson is the STEM coordinator for the Tanque Verde Unified School District and the sixth-grade science and math teacher at Agua Caliente Elementary School.
She was selected along with 12 other educators from across the United States this year to take part in the National Science Foundation and Arctic Research Consortium of the United States-funded PolarTREC, a program that began in 2007 in which educators are paired with scientists to engage in field research across the polar regions.
Educators then bring what they learn back to their classrooms.
Anderson will be working alongside Syndonia Bret-Harte, who grew up in Tucson and has spent the last 25 years as a University of Alaska ecologist. She studies how global climate change affects Arctic flora and how different plant species affect the balance of carbon and nitrogen within an ecosystem.
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Starting in late July, Anderson will spend four weeks in nearly continuous sunlight assisting Bret-Harte at the remote Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska.
To get there, Anderson will fly into Fairbanks, then hitch a more-than 14-hour ride on the Dalton Highway Express, a bus that usually ferries workers to the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay on the northern coast.
While plucking shrubs from the thawing soil for study, Anderson will don a full bodysuit to protect against giant mosquitoes that plague the Arctic in the summer, as well as mukluks 鈥 traditionally caribou- or seal-skin boots invented by people indigenous to the Arctic.
Anderson is excited to return to field work. She has a bachelor鈥檚 degree in fish and wildlife biology.
During the application review process, 鈥淪vea stood out because she鈥檚 been involved in activities to spread what she鈥檚 learned to not just her own class but also other schools鈥 through her position as STEM coordinator, Bret-Harte said. 鈥淎nd we just hit it off.鈥
Anderson will post to her public blog on every day to share her experiences.
鈥淚鈥檓 supposed to have great Wi-Fi,鈥 she said with surprise.
She will also host what鈥檚 called PolarConnect events in which she, Bret-Harte and Bret-Harte鈥檚 graduate-student research assistant will live video chat to answer any student questions.
Svea Anderson points to the location of the Toolik Field Station in northern Alaska where she鈥檒l stay for four weeks. The outerwear will protect her from swarming mosquitoes.
Additionally, Anderson鈥檚 time in the Arctic will partially overlap with the school year, so she applied for and received a $500 grant from the Tanque Verde Foundation to supply fellow teachers with curriculum and books so students of all ages can follow along as she works.
She鈥檒l break the news to kindergartners that penguins don鈥檛 live in the Arctic.
She鈥檒l have first-graders dip gloved hands in Crisco, cover them in another layer of gloves and then dunk their hand in ice water to demonstrate how Arctic animals use their blubber to stay warm.
She鈥檒l have fourth-graders work with the University of Arizona鈥檚 tree-ring lab to analyze Arctic shrubs.
Anderson also hopes to be an example for her students.
鈥淎s an undergraduate, my adviser told me that women only get degrees in fish and wildlife biology because of the fuzzy animals,鈥 she recalled.
鈥淏ecause of that incident with that adviser, I want girls to see this. I want them to know they can be fearless and to take chances,鈥 Anderson said.
鈥淚鈥檓 also super-psyched to be working with a female researcher.鈥
Svea Anderson
Contact Mikayla Mace at mmace@tucson.com or (520) 573-4158. Follow on Facebook and Twitter.
