Chesterfield Inlet (Jun 07/06) - A group of students at Victor Sammurtok school in Chesterfield Inlet compared notes between traditional knowledge and scientific research out on the land this past month.

The trip was the final stage in an environmental-studies program for the 14 Grade 12 students.

The program focused on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and sport-hunting regulations for polar bear in the Chester area.

Teacher Glen Brocklebank says the students studied the management of polar bears, wolves, muskox, wolverines and caribou.

Once work in the classroom was done, the youth were taken on the land by elder Joe Issaluk and guides Bernie Putulik and Johnny Issaluk.

The group was accompanied by Brocklebank, teacher Ana Leishman and Cpl. Kurt Kamotski of the Chester detachment of the RCMP.

"The main point of our learning focus on the land was trying to understand the denning pattern of female bears with cubs," Brocklebank says.

"We also discussed their diet and the elder and guides talked about where the bears spend most of their time.

"The students were very interested and listened attentively to the stories.

"Some of the students would gravitate towards the elder and more stories, while others were interested in cutting up caribou or fishing."

The students spent a lot of time in class discussing why polar bear quotas are set at particular numbers, especially the breakdown of the total-allowable harvest in the different communities.

Brocklebank says the students were particularly interested in how things might affect a quota, such as a defensive kill in a community.

He says the youth gathered traditional knowledge on polar bears and compared that to scientific data from the Internet, MOU and other literature.

"We tried to determine the basis of both the scientific findings and traditional knowledge, then looked at where they were close and where they differed.

"We had a good mix of students in that some leaned towards traditional knowledge and others science.

"The rules and regulations of hunting polar bear and other animals is a lot for the kids to digest.

"But it was a subject almost all of them had an opinion on."