Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program launches in Iqaluit!

Dan, Shannon, and Aubyn spent the week of February 5-10 in Iqaluit, Nunavut launching the 2017 Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program with students at Joamie Iliniarvik School and Inuksuk Highschool.

Our first visit was to Pascale's Experiential Science class (grade 11/12) at Inuksuk. It was a cloudy day, but we still managed to get outside to take measurements with hand held sun photometers. Pascale's students will be taking daily AOT measurements starting Feb. 20th.

Our next visit was to Joamie Elementary School where we visited the classes of Ida, Hamdi, Angelo, Miali, and Marsha. The student-researchers at Joamie will be taking daily temperature, wind, and solar insolation measurements using thermometers, windsocks, anemometers, and pyranometers.

Thank you to all classes we visited for your hard work and attention, and of course, your wonderful questions! We will be sending some of your questions to the scientists heading to Eureka, Nunavut next week and will be posting their replies here on the blog.

 
Shannon, Pascale, and Dan










 The plants in Pascale's classroom were thriving even though it was -45 outside!




















We were enthralled by the class chicken coop. Pascale's class hatched these
chickens from eggs!

















Shannon with the very charming class quail.





















Searching for the sun on a very cloudy day

Experimenting with where we place the pyranometer, and where we
stand to take the measurment!





























On Wednesday the sun finally came out- a great day for taking measurements!

Testing out the pyranometers

Demonstration convection currents- did anyone try this at home?


Monday, February 6, 2017

The Outreach team heads to Iqaluit

Dan, Shannon, and Aubyn flew to Iqaluit on Sunday, February 5th, 2017. We are launching the Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Program with students at Inuksuk High School and Joamie Elementary! Here are a few photos Dan took along the way:

Getting on the plane in Ottawa:

A beautiful view from the plane:
At the airport in Iqaluit  when we landed, around 5:00PM!

We are very excited to be in Iqaluit and to meet the student-researchers at Inuksuk and Joamie! 

Program launch at da Vinci Public School!

On Thursday, February 3, 2017 the CANDAC Outreach Team travelled to visit Mrs. Cregg's kindegarten class and Mrs. Pignatell's grade 4 class at da Vinci Public School in Ajax, Ontario. The student researchers at da Vinci will be taking wind, temperature, and solar insolation measurements over the next eight weeks. Mrs. Cregg's class had already mapped out two of the locations where measurements will be taking place:
 Mrs. Cregg's class was also studying polar bears and other arctic animals:
  Taking wind measurements using an anemomemeter and a wind sock outside: it was a windy day!

 Taking temperature measurements outside with thermometers, it was -2 on Thursday:
 Good luck with your measurements da Vinci student researchers!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Taking measurements on the roof! Where will you be taking measurements?

Today Aubyn went up to the chilly roof of the Physics building at the University of Toronto to test the intstruments we will be using to take measurements during the 2017 Student-Researcher Atmospheric Collaboration Project.
She's testing a pyranometer and a multimeter: instruments used to measure solar insolation.

Orfeo came to help her out!
It's a crisp, cloudy day here in Toronto. Can you tell what type of clouds those are?

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Meet the 2017 outreach team!

We are very excited to visit your schools to launch the CANDAC Student-Researchers Atmospheric Collaboration Program. We are the core members of the outreach team that will be making the visits, but you may get to meet some other CANDAC scientists too! Here is a little bit about us:

Shannon Hicks, Scientist 
My name is Shannon Hicks and I’m a fairly new PhD student at the University of Western Ontario. I study water vapour trends in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using laser-radar (lidar). The lidar I use is located in Payerne, Switzerland and my goal is to determine if water vapour concentrations have changed over the last 10 years, and if so, what might be causing the change. My research will help increase climate model and weather forecasting accuracy so that we can understand how water vapour influences climate change.

When I’m not working on my research I’m learning aikido, hiking, or reading fantasy and science fiction novels. I am also active with an outreach project in London, Ontario called Exploring the Stars. I am a firm believer in science literacy and think it is extremely important that everyone have a good science foundation, no matter what field of work they continue in. And I think the best time to start that foundation is when you are a student. In London, I work with kids and adults of all ages and teach them Astronomy - where my science career originally started. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity to start teaching a new group of students about Atmospheric Science and how to understand their environment through conducting experiments.


Dan Weaver, Scientist
My name is Dan Weaver. I’m a doctoral candidate in Prof. Kim Strong’s experimental atmospheric physics research group. Before graduate school, I did a B.Sc. in astronomy and astrophysics (U of T) and a B.Ed. at OISE. I first became involved in atmospheric research through an Environment Canada research internship. Under Prof. Strong’s supervision, I worked for a year on Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (TAO) measurements, monitoring air pollution (among other things) from the roof of the U of T physics building. It was a great view of the city, and an ideal introduction to the compelling need to understand our changing atmosphere. 

My research involves acquiring and analyzing measurements of the high Arctic atmosphere using a high resolution spectrometer installed at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) near Eureka, Nunavut (80°N). I work on projects improving our understanding of climate change and ozone depletion processes. I also help validate satellite measurements.

In addition to focusing my time and effort on research, I’m actively engaged in science education and public outreach. I have taught in classrooms, given public talks regularly, run social media campaigns about PEARL fieldwork, and written articles about research at PEARL (e.g. for U of T News and CMOS). I’ve also created educational programs for organizations such as Science Rendezvous, co-created a course for U of T that bridged the entrepreneurship and science worlds, and trained new graduate students in teaching and public speaking. 

Outside of science, I’m a drummer, science-based policy activist, and photographer.



Aubyn  O'Grady, Educator 
My name is Aubyn O’Grady and I am the Education and Outreach Program Coordinator CANDAC. I will be helping to arrange all the travel plans to launch the Student-Research Atmospheric Collaboration program in our partner classrooms in Ontario and Iqaluit, I also help to plan some of the fun atmospheric physics demonstrations we will be showing you.  I am completing my master’s degree in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Toronto; my research interests are in experimental pedagogy and arts education. I have a wide range of experience working in the Arctic- I lived for a number of years in Dawson City, Yukon, where I attended the Yukon School of Visual Arts. During my undergraduate studies I participated in the University of Manitoba’s Pangnirtung “Bush School”, where I had the incredible opporunity to camp out on the Land with Pangnirtung Elders and members of the community.


 

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

2017 Program launch in Iqaluit!


Photo by Dan Weaver


We are very excited to announce the launch of the 2017 CANDAC Student-Researchers Atmospheric Collaboration Program in Iqaluit. In February we will be visiting Inuksuk High School, where students in the Experiential Science Program will be taking daily solar radiation and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) measurements using a pyranometer and a sun photometer.

We will also be visiting grade 4 and 5 students at Joamie Elementary School, who will be making daily temperature and wind measurements with thermometers, anemometers, and wind socks.
For more information on the instruments the student-researchers will be using, please visit our Instruments section. 

Stay tuned for more program updates as we get closer to our visit!