April 2026 8th Grade Field School and Float Your Boat Deployment

arcticfloatboat
Aug 28
3 min read

This past April, scientists and local experts gathered in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, to lead a field school for eighth-grade students at Eben Hopson Middle School and deploy Float Your Boat (FYB) wooden boats on the sea ice. A collaboration between the IABP and UIC Science / Battelle ARO, the annual 8th Grade Sea Ice Field School is funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs. The event gives students an opportunity to participate directly in the scientific and cultural activities taking place in their community and to experience the landfast sea ice that supports many of them. Although many students are familiar with the scientific and cultural importance of the landfast ice that defines their coastal landscape, not all have had the opportunity to set foot on it or interact directly with the scientists and local experts who use it for research, travel, subsistence, and other community activities.

The field school consisted of one day of classroom presentations and activities, followed by one day of outdoor activities on the sea ice. In the classroom, students learned about and participated in activities centered on:

Applications of remote sensing, methods for collecting remotely sensed data, the uses of those data, and VR headset multimedia (led by Josh Jones, University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Arctic sea ice circulation and weather patterns, the work of the IABP, and decoration of wooden boats for FYB deployment (led by Ignatius Rigor and Ben Cohen of
UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory)
Sea ice microbiology, ice-coring methods, and microscopy (led by Kyle Dilliplane, University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Bowhead whale surveys, ecology, and biology (led by Kendra Mack, North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife)
On-ice safety practices (led by Thomas Olemaun and Serina Wesen, Battelle ARO)

Gallery 1: In-classroom activities at Eben Hopson Middle School

The next day, the students bundled up for the expected −20° weather and wind, piled into a school bus, and enjoyed an exciting sled ride out onto the sea ice, where they rotated between stations that mirrored those in the classroom. The bowhead whale surveying and on-ice safety stations were combined into a “traditional knowledge” station, where students learned more about strategies for surviving and being productive in the extreme conditions on the sea ice and techniques the Iñupiat have used for generations to capture and harvest bowhead whales from local whaling captain Qaiyaan Leavitt and Battelle ARO Operations Manager Harvard Brown. At the other stations, students flew remote-sensing kites, measured the depth and character of the ice and snow, and drilled ice cores to collect microbiology samples.

Gallery 2: Eben Hopson Middle School students participating in activities on the sea ice

Later, the IABP and UIC teams transported hundreds of FYB wooden boats onto the sea ice for deployment. Each year, the boats are arranged in a culturally significant design. For this deployment, Eben Hopson students voted to arrange them in the shape of a nanuq, or polar bear. The boats were placed near an IABP GPS-equipped buoy, allowing students to follow the approximate location of their decorated boats as the sea ice carries them into the Arctic Ocean.