2018 Week 1: Pre-Trip Report

Ugh. The January Thaw. Sunday morning I logged onto Facebook and saw this:





Until now, my pre-trip plan has basically consisted of wishing for the most extreme weather possible which would still allow for the trip to go. Well, lesson learned. One thing is for certain - nothing is for certain on Mt. Washington! At least there’s a good chance that it will be snowing tomorrow!

My background and interest in Arctic Wednesday is maybe a little unconventional. As the school librarian, I get to work on helping faculty in all departments on all kinds of projects. I am lucky because I get to be interested in all subjects. But a lot of my desire to go up Mt. Washington has to do with my personal interest in weather, which has been fueled for most of my life by my friend Chris. Chris lives in Portland now and I’ll often get a text asking for “the report.” Living in a ski resort town the weather reports can occasionally be a little... exaggerated, so having someone on the ground to give you the real scoop is important.

Another thing that draws me to Arctic Wednesday is that Mt. Washington is in Gould’s backyard. Gould faculty can be found learning, playing, educating, and exploring the White Mountains and their valleys on a regular basis. Whether it’s our director of Experiential Learning, Chris Hayward, ice climbing with a group of students, Nancy Eaton doing a early-morning-mountain-top bird count, or Jay and Betsy Riley taking students to an avalanche clinic, Gould loves the White Mountains.

Many Gouldies love to be outside in the winter. I’m one of those people and so are Gould’s 18 Winter Term students. These 7th and 8th grade students take a term away from their regular schools to come to Gould during the snowy (best) months of the year. They are supported to achieve the careful balance of time on snow and time in class through their time in Winter Term.

This year, science teacher extraordinaire, Aramy Cho, has designed an exciting curriculum focused on weather for the Winter Termers. Each class begins with a weather observation (What do you see? What factors are causing that? How do you know that? etc.). When I visited class on Friday afternoon it was rainy and foggy - lots to observe and discuss!





Mr. Cho drew some diagrams to help students understand how fronts work. An eager student raised her hand, “Two days ago I was on the chairlift and it was WARMER up top than at the bottom of the mountain. You told us that it’s supposed to be colder higher up!” This comment sparked a great discussion among the students about inversions that lasted quite a while. It was great seeing the students so excited about the weather and also that they are applying what they are learning in class to their lives out in the world.




After the visual observation, the Winter Term students turn to the classroom weather station.





They confirm what they are seeing (“it’s raining instead of snowing because it’s 47 degrees”) and record their data. They will later graph this data on some nice posters that they’ve made.











Since all of these 18 students spend a significant amount of time on snow, they all have personal interests in climate change and what that means for the activities they love. They are excited to explore some historical data from MWOBS and graph that to see changes over time. They also are looking forward to comparing their data with the “real stuff.”

So maybe my path to Arctic Wednesday is a bit different than other participants, but I still get to do what I love - connecting students and teachers to excellent resources - just in an above average way this time.

-Savannah Sessions, Gould Academy, Bethel, ME