Google to Alaska

Where are we now?


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Nome, Alaska

A view across the red and gold fall tundra around Nome, Alaska. Image taken from Anvil Mountain.

Thinking Back on Barrow

The team has a few hours of downtime this afternoon as we switch planes on the way to Kotzebue, and are using that time to digest our two days in Barrow and plan ahead for our next two destinations. I left the "Top of the World" with a few striking observations, and I'm sure others in the group came away with minds racing in similar ways.

Barrow's unconventional high school football history has been featured in ESPN, news articles, even a new book. Stepping onto that bright blue and yellow turf field on the Arctic coast was like nothing I've ever done, though. Imagining the students we'd just spent the day with on that field every windy Saturday afternoon was mind-boggling.

Also, while Barrow has never been an easy place to forge out a living, it's not getting any easier. In a place where all supplies and materials must be shipped in by barge or plane, prices are skyrocketing as gas prices rise. After our tour of the town yesterday afternoon, we stopped off at the town's grocery store to pick up breakfast for the next day. We'd heard about high food prices, but nothing you read can prepare you to see price tags displaying $8.99 gallons of milk!

The political, social, and economic situations in Barrow are truly one-of-a-kind and would likely take years to fully wrap my head around, but my curiosity will certainly have me following local news for months to come. The adults and students we met in Barrow have certainly led me to think deeply about my world and my place in it; it's my hope that we've set the students thinking in new ways as well.

Barrow - America's Northernmost City

The flight from Fairbanks was a nice one, not too much out of the ordinary except that the front of the plane was blocked off to hold cargo, and the back half was reserved for passengers. The only way to get goods to Barrow, the most northern point of the United States, is by plane or by barge. The scenery between Fairbanks and Barrow was beautiful to say the least. First there were tall evergreens poking through fires of yellow leaves coating the many mountain ranges, then the land was flat and the landscape was dotted with round lakes and sinewy river paths. I saw no roads. Then we landed on the top of the world, Barrow, Alaska.

The outskirts of Barrow from the descent


The first thing I noticed at the airport was that everyone knew each other. Neighbors greeted neighbors and groups of marine biologists and researchers milled about, chatting with each other while waiting for our luggage (which takes a while, because there is so much cargo to unload). I instantly felt a sense of community; people rely on each other here. We were met at the tiny airport by the principal of Barrow High School. Our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the airport, with the high school right around the corner. The skyline of Barrow consists of a collection of dwellings, hotels, and odd-shaped dome structures, some of which hover above the ground on stilts, so as to not disturb the frozen arctic tundra.


No snow yet

Our first day of teaching was also a day of learning for us. Our day began with a general assembly for the approximately 100 freshman and sophomores who trickled into the auditorium after homeroom. After an introduction and demonstration, we split into groups to teach three different lesson plans. I worked with John Bailey from UAF to teach the group about GPS technologies and navigation around Google Earth. Barrow High is part of Apple's 1 to 1 program, so each student has their own laptop to work from.

I asked a few groups of students to describe their favorite part of the day's lessons. Their answer was always enthusiastically the same – the flight simulator in Google Earth. They also enjoyed learning how to discover content by zooming in and out of places in Google Earth and turning on different layers. They said the elephants in Africa (referring to Michael Fay's Africa flyover in the National Geographic layer) and that measuring the length of hippos in Smoots was also fun.

Barrow High School

I had one particularly enlightening moment with our last group of students, who were juniors and seniors. A student asked me to show her how to view the Panoramio photos in the town of Barrow using Google Earth. I popped an icon, and she exclaimed that the picture I showed was "ugly." I didn't think so. I attempted to explain to her and the class that people who have never been to Barrow would find this snapshot fascinating. We talked about how people like to explore and see what other less familiar places look like, and that what may be boring and mundane to her may be fascinating to someone who has never been north of the Arctic Circle. The class was silent and reflective, and someone else said that they should go and take more pictures of their town. I hope they are inspired to find a digital camera and capture their town through their eyes for the world to see.


The arctic blue football field of the Barrow Whalers

Cheers to Barrow, I found it to be a tight-knit community, where everyone knows everyone, you can walk into THE grocery store, chat with your neighbors, and where you can join the "polar bear club" any time of the year. Visiting the Land of the Midnight sun for two days was not long enough. I travel a lot for work but I still get excited about going to new and unique places, and I have to say that this will be one of the most memorable. The vice principal of the High School took us on a lovely tour north of the city after our day of teaching. We went to the blue BLUE High School football field and we drove as far north as you can go, almost to the very tip of northern Alaska. The air is dry and crisp, and the sun shines but the wind takes your breath away. And the whole idea of a polar bear walking down Main Street, or rather, "North Star Street," is incredible.


One of the landmarks on the edge of town, the "gateway" to Barrow

By Megan Goddard, Google Inc. (From Google Lat-Long Blog)

Fairbanks to Barrow

Our first full day in Alaska started out at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center’s Discovery Lab. To get there we descended to the lower depths of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Rasmuson Library. This location is fitting, because the D-Lab, as it’s known, feels a lot like a cave – a cave from the future, that is. The room is dark except for a huge 3-walled screen, onto which you can project all kinds of interesting imagery. It makes for a very immersive environment, and the lab has been used for projects ranging from virtual reality experiments to virtual dance performances. We spent the first part of our day there, demonstrating Google Earth and talking to representatives of the University and local press.

Next we stopped off to visit UAF’s Geophysical Institute, where our friend John Bailey, a volcanologist and avid geo developer, spends his time. He gave us a tour of the Alaska Volcano Observatory, where researchers track volcanic activity using Google Earth and other tools. These very cool animations simulating the movement of volcanic ash caught my eye.

We arrived in Barrow just in time for dinner and a windy stroll. We're only a little over an hour away from Fairbanks by air, but it’s unlike anywhere I’ve ever been. Polar bears are regularly spotted in town (here's one checking out the football field), and our hotel has thermal shields to keep it from melting the permafrost. Here are some pictures from our first day, and we’ll be back tomorrow with stories from our time in Barrow.

By Kate Hurowitz, Google Inc. (From Google Lat-Long Blog)

Geo Education in Alaska

Greetings from Fairbanks! I’m writing from the Discovery Lab at the University of Alaska, where members of Google's Geo Education team have just kicked off a series of workshops with educators and students who are interested in learning more about how Google Earth and Maps can be used in the classroom.

It’s hard to believe that in just a few hours we will be in Barrow, the northernmost inhabited location in continental North America. From there we’ll be going to the communities of Kotzebue and Nome before wrapping things up in Anchorage. 

You can read more about how this trip came to be on the Official Google Blog, and be sure to check back here throughout the week for daily updates from members of the team and our colleagues from UA.

Here’s a map of where we’ll be. As the week goes on we’ll fill it out with photos and stories from the road (or from the air, rather, since there aren’t many roads up here!).

By Kate Hurowitz, Google Inc. (From Google Lat-Long Blog)

Visitng Denali NP

As the Googlers were arriving in Alaska this weekend I was lucky enough to be driving through Denali National Park as a winner of the annual car lottery. Usually you have to cram into old school buses to journey the 90-mile road. But for one weekend a year a few hundred people are given this opportunity to drive there own cars into the park, and explore in their own time.

Our animal count for this trip was: 25 dall sheep, 8 grizzly bears, 3 herds of caribou, 1 baby moose, 3 bull moose, a flock of ptarmigans but no pear trees.

By John E. Bailey, University of Alaska Fairbanks