13 October 2021
Alaska K-12 teachers and other community ice scientists joined the Fresh Eyes on Ice team for our first winter 2021-22 workshop last night! There must have been at least 20 teachers from 12 schools around Alaska including in new participants from Eagle and Sleetmute that tuned in via Zoom to make plans for a focus this year on inquiry-based learning and community-centered ice research projects that their students will lead. Regular ice thickness and snow depth observations will still form the core mission, but with our new focus from NASA Citizen Science we will also work with schools and other community observers to gather photos of ice conditions on rivers and lakes. Thus, river ice specialist Dana Brown led our new team in a fun and challenging exercise to place ice observations from ground cameras, drones, and satellites into a timeline sequence. Participants shared their local knowledge of how rivers freeze and how people use rivers during these changing conditions. An ice Fresh Eyes start to an exciting new winter!