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IGLULIK - "It was so good!," said Grade 6 student and aspiring scientist Michel Atagootak, describing a recent visit from some of Canada’s High Arctic researchers.

He and his fellow students had been learning about the weather and atmosphere from a group of scientists studying atmospheric conditions at Canada’s most northerly weather station in Eureka.

"$2.5 million!"” said Atagootak in amazement, quoting the operating budget for the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) – which has been open since 1993, shutting down briefly in 2004 due to a shortage of federal funding.

He was also impressed by a cool video clip of the scientists inflating and launching a weather balloon in Eureka, which was shown to the students during the visit. Atagootak’s classmates, Nadine Kadlutsiak and Bernice Qulitalik, said they liked making the spectroscope the best. With the spectroscope, the students compared the different light spectra of various bulbs and learned how such instruments can be used to measure gases in the earth’s atmosphere

The five visiting scientists from the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC) were in Iglulik as part of an education and outreach program that has been expanded as an International Polar Year project. The program began in 2004 as scientists flying through Resolute on their way home from Eureka started doing presentations at the local school. From there, CANDAC began offering similar presentations in Grise Fiord and other neighbouring communities.

“The goal essentially is to attempt to inform the community in which we work about what we’re doing,” said CANDAC outreach co-ordinator Tara Cunningham. “So we’re up in Nunavut doing all the science and obviously there’s no one in Eureka to tell about it, so we’re trying to go to the communities we’re closest to.”

By going to the schools, the scientists hope youth can learn a bit about the science itself and the work that is being done in Eureka, she added.

“We do try and talk a little bit about some of the impacts of the changes that are happening, but in general, we’re not really coming with a any kind of agenda at all,” said Cunningham.

In Iglulik, the scientists prepared different projects for each grade level, from elementary to high school students. One of the main projects was to create rockets in learning about satellites that measure components in the atmosphere. In Eureka, scientists use their own instruments on the ground to verify satellite information.

“With Grade 4 and 5, it’s a really interesting topic,” said Cunningham. “We talk about a number of different satellites and what they do.”

Ultimately, the scientists will create an online resource for educators based on the experiments and lessons they are piloting across Nunavut.

“Eventually, what we hope to do is sort of put some of these presentations and some of the other resources we’re developing in this program up on our website in a way that will be accessible to teachers to download and use,” Cunningham said. “That’s sort of the legacy we’d like to leave.”