Inuvik (Dec 10/04) - For the third year in a row, students from Eric Church's class enjoyed learning on the land at Jackfish Creek.

But unlike past years, when the experience was new, this time around everyone in the Wildlife Career and Technology Studies class was familiar with being in the great outdoors.

"I usually go out on the land every weekend," said Samuel Hearne secondary school student Martha Day, who distinguished herself by being the only student to eat fish during the excursion. "The adults ate it though."

Elder John Jerome accompanied the class and when he was not teaching them such things as how to set a fishnet under the ice, he was entertaining everyone with stories from his past.

"There's so much history and stories from the North," said Church. "But it's an oral history so you really need to be in the company of an elder to experience it."

No stranger to being on the land himself, even Church was able to learn something new.

"I was jigging without much success and Wills Storr (a student) was catching a lot of fish," said Church, who asked his student for some advice.

"'Mr. Church,' he said, 'You just have to be gentle with it and when you feel a fish bite, then you pull.'"

Storr's tips to his teacher paid off, as Church ended up landing some of the excursion's biggest catches.

A selection of jackfish, loche, coni, whitefish and crooked back were caught -- either by jigging or in the net -- and prepared under Jerome's watchful eye.

However, on the hunting front, students were not as successful and most sustained themselves on a diet of pasta and hotdogs.

Student Tasha Savoie says that, while she didn't eat any fish, she would've gladly had some moose meat if one had been taken.

"My plan this winter is to shoot a caribou and learn how to carve it up," said the student, who survived much of the excursion on Kraft Dinner.

And to pass the long evenings without the modern trappings of television or video games, several girls started a beauty salon, giving makeovers to brave volunteers.