scholarly journals Arctic Thunder: A Novel by R. Feagan

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell

Feagan, Robert. Arctic Thunder: A Novel. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2010. Print. St. Albert is a small city, just north of Edmonton in Central Alberta.  In the opening pages of this book, thirteen-year-old Mike Watson and his team, the St. Albert Rams, win the Alberta Bantam Provincial box lacrosse championship.  Then his father, an RCMP officer, announces that they’ve been posted to Inuvik, which Mike describes as a place “somewhere inside the Arctic Circle and makes winter in St. Albert seem like summer”. The author, Robert Feagan, who lives in St. Albert, but spent much of his youth in RCMP posts across the Canadian Western Arctic, does a good job of presenting the struggles of a thirteen year old boy from the South trying to fit into the largely Inuit and Dene community in Inuvik. The story is definitely told from the point of view of a “white kid from the South”, except that Mike is part Zulu, so he sort of looks like he might fit in. Mike finds that teenagers are teenagers everywhere and when he goes to school he meets: the bully, the nerd whom everyone avoids and the super athletes, who in this case compete in the Arctic Games.  There is even a beautiful female nemesis, Gwen, who is one of the best basketball players Mike has every encountered. While well written and engaging, Feagan sometimes becomes a little didactic in educating the reader about the North.  Characters occasionally launch into unnaturally detailed explanations about things northern. Much of the tension between characters is also resolved too neatly.  Most of the core characters acquire self-understanding, turn over new leaves, and apologize to each other within a very few pages.  Much more realistic is the portrayal of the typical teenager, Mike, whispering a “Thank-you” to his Mom, long after she’s out of earshot. Through the course of the book, Mike (and the reader) come to appreciate what Inuvik, with its single traffic light and one retail store, has to offer.  Feagan works in a sensitive treatment of the role of the elders in the community and the healthy effects of living close to the land.  Of course, lacrosse, which no one plays in Inuvik, is an important thread through the story. Adult readers should not be put off by the fact that this is a young adult novel; it is a good Arctic read for anyone. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

Polar Record ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Robinson

ABSTRACTDuring the last decades the Arctic has become more central on the world stage. However, despite increased interest how much do people really know about ‘the north’ and the ‘northern people’? The aim of this article is to chronicle a research project by students, who saw themselves as northerners, that used video to capture northerners’ definitions of the north, as well as asking the community about what they wanted newcomers and southern Canada to know about the north. The group also embarked on a new discipline of northerners studying ‘the south’. 43 students interviewed 95 people in the Beaufort Delta, Northwest Territories and 25 people in Edmonton, Alberta. The student researchers’ responses and that of their interviewees are some of the most direct messages on how northerners view their identity and that of their fellow southern Canadians. This project created a video tool to share, educate, and commence a dialogue between people about the north straight from the source.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell

Sometimes I Feel Angry /   Sometimes I Feel Nervous / Sometimes I Feel Jealous /   Sometimes I Feel Lonely /   Sometimes I Feel Sad. Illus. Amanda Sandland. Iqaluit: Inhabit Education, 2017. The Nunavummi Reading Series from Inhabit Education situates emotional literacy learning in the Canadian Arctic. These books are part of a leveled reading series and are graded at Fountas & Pinnell Text Level J (books designed to be read aloud to young children). Amanda Sandland’s illustrations are spare and uncluttered.  Backgrounds are plain or contain simple landscapes. The characters developed by Ali Hinch are anthropomorphized animals representing small children.  The nervous caribou has a hat and satchel and Aqi, the sometimes sad and lonely bird, has boots. Some of the characters appear in several books. One of the most helpful things about these books is that the resolutions are realistic. The characters display real emotions and reactions. These situations are resolved through talking with friends and recognizing which responses are healthy and which are not. There are none of the trite “quick-fixes” that so often appear in children’s books related to emotions. There are many children’s series that address emotions, but because these books are set in the Arctic and use Arctic animals, children in the North will be more comfortable with the content. The characters do things that Northern children would do: playing one-foot high kick, looking for fossils, picking berries, ice-fishing and going sliding. Children who do not live in Northern environments will be able to learn more about the North, as well as about emotions. This is a high-quality, relatively inexpensive series that is highly recommended for elementary school libraries and public libraries.  Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell

Flaherty, William.  Arctic Wolf. Illustrated by Sean Bigham. Inhabit Media, 2018. Karpik, Joanasie.  Bowhead Whale. Illustrated by Sho Uehara. Inhabit Media, 2018. Paniaq, Herve.  Walrus. Illustrated by Ben Shannon. Inhabit Media, 2017.   Inhabit Media has published three more volumes in their successful “made in the Arctic” Animals Illustrated Series. Herve Paniaq’s Walrus, Joanasie Karpik’s Bowhead Whale and William Flaherty’s Arctic Wolf follow the pattern of the earlier works in this series (see review https://doi.org/10.20361/G2NM3W). Each book is a natural history of the animal, including range, physical characteristics, diet, babies, and fun facts. Each book also has one or two sections specific to the animal. For example, in Arctic Wolf, there is a section for “Wolves in Human Form.” Both Bowhead Whale and Walrus have sections on “Traditional Uses.” Although there is a different illustrator for each volume, the styles are similar and the content of the images are parallel throughout the three books. For example, page 6 of each book shows a naturally coloured skeleton on a black background, while page 12 is about Babies, and each book shows a mother and baby image. The illustrations are excellent throughout and extend to the end pages.  This series would be good research material for elementary school children studying the North. These books are highly recommended for public libraries and elementary school libraries.  Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Arno Pronk ◽  
Peng Luo ◽  
Qingpeng Li ◽  
Fred Sanders ◽  
Marjolein overtoom ◽  
...  

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 387-406
Author(s):  
J. Molina Vidal ◽  
I. Grau Mira ◽  
F. Llidó López ◽  
J. F. Álvarez Tortosa

In the framework of archaeological surveys conducted in 2002-3 for the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria around the Via Flaminia, the Società Cooperativa Kronos discovered the site known as the “Villa of Rufio” (the name comes from an inscription dedicated to Caius Iulius Rufio). After 4 excavation campaigns (2003-6) the monumental character of a large villa was established, and in 2007 a team from the University of Alicante led by the first-named author began fieldwork, focusing on the analysis of agricultural and commercial production patterns through an examination of the type of manpower in use during the Augustan era. The site lies in the village of Giano dell'Umbria (Perugia), in the foothills of Gualdo Cataneo-Montefalco of southern Umbria (fig. 1). To the north is the Roman town of Mevania (Bevagna), to the south the Martani mountains, at the foot of which lies Mansio Ad Martis (Massa Martana).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaare Sikuaq Erickson ◽  
Donatella Zona ◽  
Marco Montemayor ◽  
Walter Oechel ◽  
Terenzio Zenone

<p>The Alaskan Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) is promoting and financilally supporting, with the contribution of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and local organizations, outreach and dissemination events, in the form of science fair for the local communities in North Slope of Alaska. The science fair is part of a larger effort by UIC Science to bring coordination and collaboration to science outreach and engagement efforts across Arctic Alaska. The purpose is to provide a positive space for Arctic researchers and Arctic residents to meet, eat with each other, spend time, and to inspire the youth of the Arctic by providing fun and educational activities that are based in science and traditional knowledge. The Science Fair 2019 hosted by the Barrow Arctic Research Center (BARC) included three days of youth and family-friendly activities related to “Inupiat Knowledge about Plants” led by the College Inupiat Studies Department, “Eco-chains Activity” hosted by the North Slope Borough Office of Emergency Management, “Big Little World: Bugs Plants, and Microscopes” hosted by the National Ecological Observatory Network, “Microplastics in the Arctic” hosted by the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, “BARC Scavenger Hunt” hosted by UIC Science, “Our Role in the Carbon and Methane Cycle” hosted by the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) and San Diego State University, and “How Permafrost Works” hosted by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Geophysical Institute. Each day hundreds of students, from both the local community and the science community came together to take part in mutually beneficial engagement: students from Utqiaġvik were excited about science and now know of the realistic and fulfilling careers in research that takes place in their backyard. The Utqiaġvik community members and elders now have a better idea of the breadth of research that takes place in and near their home. The locals, especially the elders, are very concerned about the drastic changes in our environment: scientists share these concerns, and the discussions during the fair was a chance to recognize this common ground. Breaking the ice between Arctic researchers and residents can lead to endless opportunities for collaboration, sharing ideas, and even lifelong friendships.</p><p> </p><p> </p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataliya Marchenko

<p>Knowledge of sea ice state (distribution, characteristics and movement) is interesting both from a practical point of view and for fundamental science. The western part of the Barents Sea is a region of increasing activity – oil and gas exploration may growth in addition to traditional fishing and transport. So theinformation is requested by industry and safety authorities.</p><p>Three last years (2017-19) the Arctic Technology Department of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) performed expeditions on MS Polarsyssel in April in the sea ice-marginal zone of the Western Barents Sea, as a part of teaching and research program. In (Marchenko 2018), sea ice maps were compared with observed conditions. The distinguishing feature of ice in this region is the existence of relatively small ice floes (15-30 m wide) up to 5 m in thickness, containing consolidated ice ridges. In (Marchenko 2019) we described several such floes investigated by drilling, laser scanning and ice mechanical tests, on a testing station in the place with very shallow water (20 m) where ice concentrated. In this article, we summarise three years results with more attention for level ice floes and ice floe composition, continuing to feature ice condition in comparison with sea ice maps and satellite images.</p><p>These investigations provided a realistic characterization of sea ice in the region and are a valuable addition to the long-term studies of sea ice in the region performed by various institutions.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Desmarais

Thompson, Lauren. Polar Bear Morning. Illus. Stephen Savage. New York: Scholastic Press, 2013. Print.Ten years ago, Lauren Thompson and Stephen Savage collaborated on “Polar Bear Night”, which was a splendid picture book that swiftly became a New York Times best seller. “Polar Bear Morning” follows up on the simple story of a polar bear cub that ventures out onto the arctic tundra for an adventure, but this time our favourite cub meets a new friend. The story begins when the cub emerges from her dark den, peeks out at the clear blue sky, and follows the sound of seagulls. Soon after heading out into the snow and ice, she notices something tumbling down a snow hill. It’s a snow cub! The moment when the cubs first meet is beautifully portrayed in a two-page spread that shows two furry faces in profile looking at each other without words on the pages, which perfectly captures a child’s speechless, wide-eyed bliss upon meeting a new friend.The story continues with several charming scenes that show how the friendship develops: they climb the snow hill and tumble down together; they sprint beside the sea; they race past seals, walruses and whales; they pause at the ice’s edge; and finally, they jump into the sea together. It’s a delightful portrayal of a budding friendship, with simple, yet charming illustrations rendered in a gentle palette of soft blues, greys, pinks, and browns. This picture book is a joy to read and has all the makings of a beloved classic, including frolicsome illustrations, thoughtful design, and a captivating story. It’s a wholly satisfying picture book that will be a pleasure to read again and again.Recommendation: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Robert DesmaraisRobert Desmarais is Head of Special Collections at the University of Alberta and Managing Editor of The Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Studies, with a Book History and Print Culture designation, he also has university degrees in English literature and publishing. He has been collecting and enjoying children’s books for as long as he can remember.


2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Case

In the 1850s, the American scientist and educator Frederick A. P. Barnard created a collection of scientific apparatus at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, of a size and expense that surpassed any collection in the United States at that time. The collection, which would come to include over three hundred instruments of both American and European manufacture, was the attempt by Barnard, born and educated in the North, to bring Big Science to the South and challenge the dominance of Northern schools in science education. In this respect it failed, and the collection became a forgotten footnote in the history of Southern science. This article examines the importance of the collection in understanding science at U.S. universities before the Civil War and what Barnard referred to as the "scientific atmosphere" of the South. The first section compares the collection to others of the period, highlighting its historical uniqueness and significance. The second section uses Barnard's correspondence to construct a narrative of the collection's assembly, providing insight into the international scientific instrument market of the period as well as the difficulties he faced working in the antebellum South. Finally, an examination of Barnard's perceptions regarding intellectual isolation and the failure of his endeavor highlights differences perceived by scientists of the day concerning the practice of science in the North versus in the South prior to the Civil War.


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