“Instructing the academics is like planting seeds of information that can blossom right into a forest of conservation-minded people, nurturing the subsequent era to turn out to be stewards of our planet.”
—Dr. Jane Goodall
On the western fringe of Hudson Bay just under 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 most important 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 non-public cellular resort 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 concerning 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 situated 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 College Center College in Vermont, whereas Nicole is an Eighth-grade science instructor at Portsmouth Center College 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 section!
“They’re an unimaginable species…I’ve a brand new love for polar bears. I like telling individuals about them and the issues I’ve realized about them,” raves Nicole. Speaking about her educating model: “I actually push curiosity and engagement. My complete purpose 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 one in every 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 anticipate the ocean ice to type. There, they are going to spend the winter searching seals. Scientific fashions predict a dramatic lack of sea ice and drastic declines within the polar bear inhabitants if international warming continues unchecked. Educating the subsequent era of conservation champions is extra important than ever—we will’t wait to welcome our subsequent academics who obtain our 2025 Polar Bear Scholarship, open to use now!
In 2024, Nat Hab additionally supplied 4 monarch butterfly scholarship grants, bringing the 12 months complete to 6 all-expenses-paid journeys for educators. Learn concerning the experiences of our 2023 winners Princess Harris and Stacey Leffler, who witnessed tens of millions of monarchs gathered at their winter roosting websites in Central Mexico’s forested highlands.