The Philosophy of Girls on Ice
Girls on Ice is a unique, FREE, wilderness science education program for high school girls that takes place in the North Cascades in Washington state. Each year a team of 9 teenage girls and 3 instructors spend 11 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers and the alpine landscape through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, mountaineers, and some years, artists. This by recent article by founder Erin Pettit describes the philosophy (NICL Article).
The girls on the team learn not only about alpine geology, glaciology, and mountaineering, but they also challenge themselves and gain self-confidence in their physical, intellectual, and social abilities. Girls on Ice is the science version of a “language immersion” experience – where we connect science with all aspects of daily life with the goal of creating lifelong advocates for Earth science, specifically, and the scientific process as a whole, regardless of whether or not they decide to specialize in science in college.
Our purpose is to give girls a feeling for the natural processes that create the alpine world and provide an environment that fosters the critical thinking necessary to all scientific inquiry. We encourage the girls to observe and think like scientists through making observations and inferences. They develop their own experiments to test ideas and answer questions
The wilderness setting and single gender field team inspires young women’s interest in science and provides a challenging environment that increases their physical and intellectual self-confidence.
» Read what past participants have to say about their experience with Girls on Ice.
Watch a video of interviews with two girls (courtesy of Northwest Cable News and the North Cascades Institute.
The Instructors
Girls on Ice has been taught by a number of wonderful instructors over the years. The instructor team for the 2009 Girls on Ice Expedition included a scientist, a professional mountaineer, and a professional artist. While each instructor brings a unique perspective on the mountain environment, all three are experienced environmental and outdoor educators.
2010 Instructors
Erin is the founder of Girls on Ice and an assistant professor of glaciology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She specializes in glacier dynamics and their role in the climate system and she has studied glaciers and ice sheets from the North Slope of Alaska to the interior of Antarctica. She is originally from Seattle, WA and completed her graduate studies at the University of Washington. She is a fellow of Wings Worldquest and winner of their 2007 Earth Award.
Cecelia Mortenson
Cecelia is an international mountain guide who has 12 years mountain guiding experience extensively in the North Cascades, Alaska, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and most recently in Antarctica. While in Antarctica, Cecelia worked with leading glaciology, paleontology, biology and other science projects providing field mountaineering logistics and guiding support. She has been involved with GOI for the past three years and enjoys working with and training young scientists in safe mountaineering skills.
Past Instructors
Maria has worked with Girls on Ice since 2007. She is a professional artist who specializes in alpine and polar landscapes. As a expeditionary artist, she has traveled and worked with scientists in Greenland, Washington, and Alaska. Maria seeks to bridge fine art and education to raise environmental awareness. She offers exhibits, presentations, and workshops for audiences of all ages. www.expeditionaryart.com
The Expedition
Each year the day to day details of the expedition change due to weather and glacier conditions.
The basic itinerary:
- Day 1: Meet the team
- Day 2: Hike to basecamp at 6000 ft on Mt Baker
- Day 3-8: Explore the glacier, the surrounding alpine meadows, and the upper mountain
- Day 9: Hike back to the trailhead and travel to the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center
- Day 10: Continue to explore the landscape and the experience through closure activities
- Day 11: Head home.
The Experience
During these 11 days, we aim to challenges girls physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. We provide a unique environment that brings out their natural curiosity, inspires their interest in science, connects the arts and sciences, frees them from gender-imposed roles, provides a less competitive atmosphere, and encourages them to trust their physical abilities.
The girls will:
- experience strenuous hiking, scrambling over rocks, off-trail travel, and stream crossings,
- learn Leave-No-Trace wilderness ethics and discuss individual and community relationships with the natural world,
- learn roped-up glacier travel as a balance between self-reliance and dependence on a group,
- design their own scientific experiments to answer questions about the landscape they are exploring,
- take responsibility for many aspects of living and working as a team; all girls rotate through leadership roles over the course of the week,
- learn critical thinking skills through observation, directed and open ended questions and experiments,
- experience the connection between art and science and the role each play in the large context of society,
- be encouraged to express themselves through art, writing, philosophical discussion, and more…
