Inuvik (Jun 23/06) - Students come close to bears, sheep and wilderness during a five-night tent trip on the edge of Sheep Creek.

Ten students from Eric Church's Biology 20 class were in Ivvavik National Park from June 6-10. It was the second time the teacher took a group of students to the park.

This group of Samuel Hearne students went on a field trip to Ivvavik national park as part of a biology course. From top to bottom and left to right, Jodie Maring, David Terry, Noel Cockney, Emily Esau, Kenzie MacDonald, Alyssa Carpenter, Greg Elias, Derrick Thrasher, Eric Kagyut and Chad Larocque. - photo courtesy of Eric Church

For most of them, the sights were new and the sounds unfamiliar. But for 18-year-old Derrick Thrasher, it was all scenery he had witnessed the year before.

"It's great, I saw a lot of the same animals I saw last year," said Thrasher.

"It was fun seeing the other students faces though. They were so amazed. I know I looked just like that last year."

Thrasher said the group spent time writing in their journals and had a lot of hiking ahead of them.

Swimming in Sheep Creek was one of the unforgettable memories Thrasher will keep with him.

"It was cold water, with a strong current," he said.

While the group of students saw a grizzly bear from a safe distance, Thrasher said he was a bit anxious about signs they saw on their hikes.

"We walked right by fresh bear droppings, which meant recent bear activity in that area," said Thrasher.

Sheep were the most common wildlife the biology students encountered, said Kenzie MacDonald.

"It was my first time out there to Ivvavik," said MacDonald. "I enjoyed it. It really is a nice place."

Learning about the history of the park and how it came to be was something MacDonald had interest in.

"It was actually a gold mining camp originally," said MacDonald.

Along with map reading, a global positioning system was used to train the students on how to find their location if they got lost.

David Terry was one of the students who didn't know about GPS locating and was glad to learn it in an environment like Ivvavik's landscape.

"We always knew where we were, because we were trained to understand co-ordinates and locations," said Terry.

Course instructor Eric Church said the idea was to give students some hands-on experience.

"This was all designed to integrate cultural aspects, along with the curriculum aspects," said Church.

"I figured it was time for the students to encounter wilderness, and not just from a text book."