Hi, my name is Betsy Youngman. I am a teacher at Phoenix Country Day School. I have been teaching in Phoenix for 5 years, before I moved here I lived and taught in Cleveland, Ohio. I teach science to fifth and eighth grade students. I am very interested in all things to do with the environment. I enjoy being out of doors camping, hiking, mountain biking and kayaking. Arizona is a great state for outdoor pursuits, even when it1s hot. I enjoy blending my hobbies and my teaching.

I love taking field trips with my students to local and out of state sites, such as the Grand Canyon and Catalina Island. The natural world is a fabulous teacher. The subjects that I teach include, hydrology, oceanography, chemistry and physics. I also have an interest in integrating technology into all that I do and have worked to bring the computer into the daily lives of my students.

I have a wonderful husband, Bob, who is also a research scientist. We have two labrador retrievers and a siamese cat. During our vacations we all travel to interesting (and cool) places in our VW camper van.

I am looking forward to the experiences I will have while in the TEA program. I cant wait to learn more about the details of the experience and to share them with my students and colleagues here in Phoenix.

Snowpack and Atmospheric Photochemistry
Dr. Roger Bales, University of Arizona

While in Greenland I will be assisting Roger Bales, Manuel Hutterli and Markus Frey in the sampling of snow to test and validate air-snow transfer models and to investigate the timing and amount of HCHO and H2O2 deposited to the Greenland ice sheet. This information is critical for the interpretation of ice core records taken in previous summers and now being analyzed by the team in their labs in Tucson. The University of Arizona team is one of several teams working in Greenland and Antarctica to better understand the history of our climate that is trapped and recorded in the ice cores. This team is also working to increase their understanding the arctic photochemistry of the lower atmosphere over snow covered regions.

The University of Arizona team has been working at this site for a number of years collecting data and ice cores. This winter, for the second time, some scientists stayed in the research station through the cold Arctic winter in order to learn more about the winter snow and atmosphere. Other members of the research team were in place to take measurements at polar sunrise when the sun returned to the Greenland ice sheet for the first time in many months in late February. Pictures of the summit camp in February can be seen here. More information about Summit Greenland can be found here.

My work while with the team this July and August will involve assisting with the collection of the snow samples and data processing. The snow is sampled in pits dug 2 meters down in the snow. It is then analyzed for its chemical composition. I am looking forward to helping the team dig the snow pits. I also will be sampling mini- pits (~10 cm) twice a day and analyzing the samples every other day. The analysis of the snow takes place in a science lab set up in one of the small buildings on the ice sheet. I will also assist the team also taking measurements of the atmosphere in a snow trench under the snow.

The temperatures in Greenland on the ice sheet will range from -30^oF to -5^oF. This summer won't feel like a typical summer in Phoenix where it's 110^oF, that's for sure!

For the Arctic Environmental Atlas Webpage
Student instructions
http://www.pcds.org/arctic/arctic_lessons/arctic_atlas.htm

Climate Change Questions Using Other Web Sites
Student instructions
http://www.pcds.org/arctic/arctic_lessons/climate_change_questions.htm

Snow to Ice Animation Lesson Using NIH image
Teacher notes
http://www.pcds.org/arctic/index.htm

16 August, 2001:

Where am I? Where was I?

Responses to questions from Mrs. Hubbards' fifth grade classroom in
6 August, 2001:

A 48 hour snow collecting marathon, and other bits and pieces

31 July, 2001:

A passion for snow - Markus Frey

How does one study the bedrock of a place under 3000 meters of ice? -
17 July, 2001:

Yippee, Summit at last!!

27 June, 2001:

My first look at Greenland Snow 6/27/01

8 August, 2000:

life without the veneer of civilization to protect us

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