“Educating the academics is like planting seeds of data that may blossom right into a forest of conservation-minded people, nurturing the subsequent era to turn into stewards of our planet.”
—Dr. Jane Goodall
On the western fringe of Hudson Bay slightly below the Arctic Circle, the tiny Manitoba group of Churchill attracts between 600–1,000 polar bears that migrate to the realm every fall. The spectacular gathering is the biggest focus of polar bears on the planet! Two excellent academics, Nicole Stonerook and Sammy DeCuollo, earned the chance to witness the King of the Arctic in Churchill, Canada—often called the “Polar Bear Capital of the World”—and returned impressed to share their newfound data within the classroom.
The winners of our Churchill Polar Bear Scholarship Grant joined the October 7–13, 2024 departure of our Tundra Lodge & Churchill Highlights journey (a $10,495 worth) and acquired free round-trip airfare to Winnipeg, Manitoba, the place the journey begins and ends. Nicole and Sammy explored the tundra on a small-group journey that included two nights on the Tundra Lodge, our personal cellular lodge stationed every season in a distant space of excessive polar bear density. Within the firm of professional naturalist guides, they sought out the King of the Arctic as they realized in regards to the precarious stability between polar bear survival and sea ice. They got here away awed by encounters with these magnificent marine mammals and impressed by the exploits of polar scientists who’ve made essential contributions to conservation within the Canadian North.
This inuksuk, an Inuit stone landmark, is positioned on the shores of Hudson Bay. © Scholarship Winner Nicole Stonerook
From the Tundra to the Classroom
Sammy is an built-in environmental science and AP physics instructor at Woodstock Union Excessive Faculty Center Faculty in Vermont, whereas Nicole is an Eighth-grade science instructor at Portsmouth Center Faculty in New Hampshire. Ever since they returned from their polar bear journey, they’ve been bringing all they realized into the classroom—Nicole was even featured educating a polar bear lesson in a neighborhood information phase!
“They’re an unbelievable species…I’ve a brand new love for polar bears. I really like telling folks about them and the issues I’ve realized about them,” raves Nicole. Speaking about her educating type: “I actually push curiosity and engagement. My entire aim is that I simply need you to fall in love with science.”
“Ms. Stonerook is a very nice instructor, and studying about polar bears made them much less scary,” stated certainly one of her college students throughout a polar bear science exercise.
Along with many polar bear sightings, Nicole noticed different wildlife together with Arctic hares, willow ptarmigans, bald eagles and foxes, and was even handled to a northern lights show! © Scholarship Winner Nicole Stonerook
Classes in Conservation
Lengthy a bellwether species for monitoring the impacts of local weather change, polar bears collect in Churchill for roughly six weeks every fall as they await the ocean ice to kind. There, they’ll spend the winter searching seals. Scientific fashions predict a dramatic lack of sea ice and drastic declines within the polar bear inhabitants if world warming continues unchecked. Educating the subsequent era of conservation champions is extra important than ever—we are able to’t wait to welcome our subsequent academics who obtain our 2025 Polar Bear Scholarship, open to use now!
In 2024, Nat Hab additionally provided 4 monarch butterfly scholarship grants, bringing the yr whole to 6 all-expenses-paid journeys for educators. Learn in regards to the experiences of our 2023 winners Princess Harris and Stacey Leffler, who witnessed thousands and thousands of monarchs gathered at their winter roosting websites in Central Mexico’s forested highlands.
