Taking Off to the Great White North

Two summers ago, at the encouragement of LI science teacher and alumna Jill Nichols, newly graduated Una Colby ‘25 journeyed to Greenland with a Vermont-based science team on a mission to collect permafrost core samples for further study and research. This summer, it was Nichols’s turn. After all, why should students get all the fun? Only this time, Nichols traveled even farther north: all the way to Eureka Weather Station on Ellesmere Island. Eureka, Nunavut—a place where summer still feels a bit wintery, even for a seasoned Vermonter like Nichols.

“We crossed the 80 degree latitude marker,” Nichols said. “Only .01% of human beings have ever traveled that far north, which is kind of cool to think about.”

Cool indeed considering, based on year-round averages, Eureka is literally the coldest place in Canada. 

The mid-June journey involved several flights and took four days. From Montreal to Iqaluit to Resolute Bay to Eureka. Nichols joined a team of four other researchers, including a UVM grad student and two undergraduate students from VTSU Lyndon and Randolph, and led by VTSU Randolph professor Ross Lieblappen, a familiar face for Nichols.

“Ross and I were classmates, lab partners, and good friends at Middlebury College, so it was fun to be able to work together again after all those years!”

Eureka—the third-northernmost permanent research community in the world—not only has the lowest average annual temperature in Canada, it also receives the lowest level of annual precipitation. 

“It actually wasn’t too snowy,” Nichols explained. “It was about 30 degrees fahrenheit the entire time we were there, and really a bit muddy in a lot of places from a recent thaw. Eureka doesn’t have a settlement, just a weather station. Twice a day, the researchers release a weather balloon and make hourly weather checks, which was fun to help out with.”

While Nichols’s team wasn’t there to study the weather, their research was, in part, climate-related. 

“Our mission was to collect core samples and DNA from the permafrost both in Eureka and Resolute Bay, then bring them back to Vermont for lab analysis.”

Collecting the samples was a challenge—traveling out across the barren landscape with heavy equipment that included power drills and storage freezers, meticulously handling samples to avoid contamination, dealing with cold temperatures and strong winds. And…polar bears?

“We actually had a polar bear guard with us anytime we went out into the field,” Nichols said with a laugh. “A great guy named Gab. The bears are out and about and can be a concern. Unfortunately, I never really got to see one. At least not up close.”

For most of us, that would be a good thing; for a science teacher, it’s a disappointment.

At both Eureka and Resolute Bay, the team spent three straight days in the field collecting samples, followed by a day in the lab conducting DNA analysis. The core samples were carefully stored and prepared for their trip back to the lab at VTSU Randolph, where they would later undergo CT imaging, probing for a host of bacteria and microbes.

“The project and the process raises all kinds of questions for us as scientists,” said Nichols. “What kind of living matter lies in the permafrost in this part of the world? Can we use these tools to successfully image matter in this native environment? Are there antibiotic resistant genes in these microbes? Are they active? We tried looking at their RNA and their metabolic processes. Were they producing methane? There are still a lot of questions about these Arctic places and what exists there.

“And sometimes,” Nichols added, “we don’t even know what questions to ask. Sometimes new questions appear as we dig deeper.”

This summer, Nichols said the group dug deeper into the permafrost than ever before, though they discovered fewer samples the further down they went.

“Which makes sense,” Nichols said. “At a certain point, the conditions become even less amenable to life. But it was interesting to confirm that. Not all our questions get answered during the process, and some things we try don’t work. But that’s just science.”

Lieblappen’s project, funded by a federal grant through the Army Core of Engineers, was developed partly with the hope of bringing Vermont high school students and teachers into the research process. For Nichols—who during her tenure at LI has primarily taught life sciences, including everything from biology to freshman to ecology and environmental science to seniors enrolled in VTSU’s Lyndon Learning Collaborative dual enrollment program—it’s been a dream opportunity.

“I’ve been teaching at LI for ten years, and this program got me back into doing science again. It’s actually been really humbling. Science is hard! Doing this research reminded me what it’s like to be a student again and to see things through their eyes, the feeling of not knowing while you’re in the process of learning.”

Nichols was particularly excited to be back in the field again, and in such an alien environment. 

“It was great to be outside, to be traveling to such strange and remote places, to be meeting all kinds of different scientists at the different stations, and learning about all kinds of new species and ecosystems. And it was really fun to do some solo travel, to have a little break from parenting and not be responsible for anyone else.

“Most of all it was professionally reinvigorating. I have all kinds of personal examples now to share with students in the classroom.”

Nichols is incorporating the team’s research into her LLC class with a semester-long project, connecting them with the VTSU students who participated in the expedition.

“One of our Transferrable Skills here at LI is collaboration. So it’s a great opportunity for my students to practice that first-hand and realize that, at its heart, science is a collaborative experience.”

Nichols’s experience not only provides her students with an opportunity to practice these vital transferable skills, it also supports another important school initiative—embracing productive learning, a pedagogical approach that emphasizes real-world application and meaningful tasks. Her LLC class isn’t just absorbing abstract information from a textbook; they’re engaging with actual research conducted by their own instructor. In the end, when it comes to the scientific process, Nichols serves as both mentor and model.