This is the latest in a series of dispatches from scientists and education officers aboard the National Science Foundation’s R/V Sikuliaq. Jil Callaghan is a 6th grade science teacher at Houck Middle School in Salem, Oregon. She is posting blogs for her students while aboard the Sikuliaq as part of a teacher at sea program through Oregon State University. Read more posts here. Track the Sikuliaq’s progress here.

By Jil Callaghan
Dated: 28 September 2016

As the timing of our science projects got shifted from encountering ice and equipment that didn’t always perform as expected, we ended up with time to allow a side trip to go and walk around on a piece of sea ice.  We had fun but there was science too: we collected ice samples to look at any possible sediment the ice may have trapped as it was formed. We also collected water from underneath the ice that will be studied for what type of organisms are living there.

A few of the crew went out to test the piece of ice to make sure that it could hold our weight and to place flags on the ice as a safety perimeter – don’t go closer to the edge!

A hole was cut through the ice, then a bottle was lowered down to take a water sample by Miguel Goni and Laurie Juranek from Oregon State University as Ethan and Kylie watch.

I had fun making a snow angel. You can see one of the safety flags in the background.

There were some polar bear tracks on the ice – you can see how large they are compared to my hand!

We had to have a snowball fight..I am being a target for Katie …she got me twice! The trench in between us is where the 2 pieces of ice froze or “rafted” together to make one larger piece.

The Sikuliaq in the background; you can also see the trench where the pieces rafted. From left to right: me, Katie, Selina, and Mary Kate. We are floating on ice in the arctic!

This post was originally published on thedynamicarctic.wordpress.com.