International Student-led Arctic Monitoring & Research (ISAMR)
Several students as Poly participate in International Student-led Arctic Monitoring & Research (ISAMR), an international coalition of students, teachers, and professional researchers committed to climate change research. They are currently focusing on two main studies in the arctic: permafrost and microbial DNA. At Poly our club meets on Mondays from 3:15-4:00 pm and additionally at the Park School from 6:00-8:00. During meetings they do many different activities including: using R Programming to analyze our summer data, creating maps of Wapusk Naitonal Park with GIS, analyzing our arctic soil samples, along with preparing equipment like probes and quadrants. Poly has been involved in ISAMR for the past 6 years.
The summer program involves monitoring the permafrost and arctic vegetation. On trips to the Arctic, they measure the active layer thickness, or the distance from the permafrost to the top level vegetation. They chose to monitor the active layer thickness because we suspect the active layer will be growing and the permafrost melting. The permafrost holds harmful greenhouse gasses like methane, which when released can cause damage to our planet. After collecting data, it's presented by Poly students at international conferences like ArcticNet.
Students in the ISAMR club work on a research project in which they practice noninvasive research techniques to monitor polar bear population and health. Instead of gunning bears down and tagging them, in late October of every year they travel to Churchill Canada to take photos of bears with calibrated cameras. When they return they use calibrated cameras to estimate bear size. By tracking the size of the bears and their behaviors they can monitor the changes of bear behavior as climate change progresses. While this study has been going on they have data that proves the overall bear population is getting skinnier and have presented this data at ArcticNet an international conference in Canada.
The summer program involves monitoring the permafrost and arctic vegetation. On trips to the Arctic, they measure the active layer thickness, or the distance from the permafrost to the top level vegetation. They chose to monitor the active layer thickness because we suspect the active layer will be growing and the permafrost melting. The permafrost holds harmful greenhouse gasses like methane, which when released can cause damage to our planet. After collecting data, it's presented by Poly students at international conferences like ArcticNet.
Students in the ISAMR club work on a research project in which they practice noninvasive research techniques to monitor polar bear population and health. Instead of gunning bears down and tagging them, in late October of every year they travel to Churchill Canada to take photos of bears with calibrated cameras. When they return they use calibrated cameras to estimate bear size. By tracking the size of the bears and their behaviors they can monitor the changes of bear behavior as climate change progresses. While this study has been going on they have data that proves the overall bear population is getting skinnier and have presented this data at ArcticNet an international conference in Canada.
Below: ISAMR Club Sign-In Sheets
iNaturalist
On March , 2020, students in the Environmental Club surveyed the school's campus for different species of plants and animals. They take pictures of these organisms, document exactly when and where they were, and then upload this documentation to the iNaturalist app. This app helps advance the knowledge about health of different species and the environment around us. The Environmental Club wants to track how the biodiversity has changed since they planted various native species in the pollinator garden.