Wrangell students collect Shakes Glacier survey data

While Wrangell High School students involved in monitoring the Shakes Glacier may have been iced out this year, the program has plans for the data they have collected.

Local high school students have participated in using survey equipment to monitor the glaciers in Petersburg and Wrangell for years. Petersburg students have measured the LeConte Glacier since 1983, and over the years have helped – and received help from -- the University of Alaska Southeast. The Wrangell program has monitored the Shakes Glacier since 2010, and plans to start publishing their data over the Internet in the next year, with help from the university and the US Forest Service. Local academics then use that information to analyze things as diverse as ice calving and climate change.

In the fall months, students get closer to the glacier than tours and others usually allow to place reflective surfaces on the front of the glacier, then use equipment provided by R&M Engineering to track the amount the glaciers have receded.

Two students involved with the program, senior Calleigh Miller and junior Kacie Galla, said they got involved mainly through their interest in things scientific.

"I always liked science, and it was just something to add to my background," Galla said.

Miller agreed.

"When I was younger, I was a rock collector," she said. "Whenever this got started, I was like, oh, good, let's go survey a glacier. It seemed like fun."

The program also allows students scientific insight into the environment they have known since early childhood, said elementary school teacher Jenn Miller, who helps coordinate the Wrangell program..

"It's interesting both Calleigh and Kacie work on jet boats in the summer, so they're what we call Stikine River Rats," she said. "They ran the river they're whole lives. They love the river just as much as all the other people who are involved."

They have also noticed changes that casual observers might not, the elder Miller said.

"I noticed this year it looked a little flatter," she said. "Whereas when we ran the face two years prior, we were looking way up at it. We could actually see up over the top of it."

"We have two spots right across from each other, right across the bay, that were exactly the same as the last year," Miller said.

Once their spots are determined, students help set up a surveying tripod, known by its brand name, Trimble.

"The Trimble connects to the satellite, and you take a reflector and run along the face of the glacier," the younger Miller said.

In addition to providing local scientists with invaluable data about iceberg calving, the program also provides students with an opportunity to apply sometimes-esoteric mathematics in the real world, said Victor Trautman, a science teacher who runs the Petersburg program.

"The actual data that we collect is just numbers until we come back and use trigonometry functions to turn it into a plottable set," he said.

The Petersburg program requires a two-year commitment from students, meaning an important skill might not be measured in terms of sine, cosine, and tangent, Trautman said.

"One real big skill is commitment," he said. "We work over lunch, not in class. That's our time. For a high school kid a lunch break is a big deal."

The younger Miller and Galla said they both planned to include science in their careers going forward. The younger Miller plans to study marine biology at Western Washington University.

"I haven't quite decided on my future yet, science is an option," Galla said. "It's always interesting to know."