Arctic Wednesdays

Arctic Wednesday 2/6 Pre- Blog I am so excited!! As I am preparing to go up the Mountain, I have a million ideas swarming around in my head. Last week I shared with my 6-8th graders at Plainfield Elementary School about this amazing opportunity. Several of my students asked why I would want to go up to the top of Mount Washington in the winter and I said, “This is going to be an amazing experience and I’ll be able to bring so much information back to you.” I brought up the observatory weather data and we analyzed what it was saying and what it meant. We watched two of the facebook videos from last week that demonstrated the crazy changes in weather that the meteorologists at the summit have observed. They loved the frozen pants/hot water to snow video and were wowed by the observatory deck filled with water from January 24. It started a good discussion about the extremes Mount Washington (and Plainfield) can have during our winters. Like the rest of New Hampshire, we have experienced a low of -9 ℉ to a high of 55 ℉ within a week. Currently, my 7th and 8th graders are analyzing ocean and climate data and models and are being asked to draw some conclusions about what this data is telling us. We are going to also integrate temperature and weather data from Mount Washington into this study. We will also be comparing the regional weather in Plainfield NH to the weather and microclimate of the White Mountains specifically Mount Washington. I hiked Mount Washington with my summer camp as a teenager and was awed by the geology, topography, and beauty of the trip as well as the warning to expect weather changes often. When I got to the top I wondered what it was like at other times of the year. I have since read books about Mount Washington and followed the extreme weather it experiences. I am giddy with excitement about the possibility of going up in the snowcat and experiencing Mount Washington in the winter. I am excited to meet with the staff and hear about the real data that they are collecting and thinking of different ways to use their experiences in the classroom. I hope that I have to the opportunity to skype down to my students in our classroom. I want my excitement about this adventure to diffuse into their world. I want them to seek adventure and learning, and I want to be a model for that!