There are many things we can see around lakes and streams, but there is much more that we cannot see on the surface. The interactions of plants, animals, and nonliving factors in these environments are crucial to the survival of the ecosystem as a whole.      

During the course of this module, students will learn how to investigate stream and lake aquatic ecology around Fairbanks, Alaska. Everyone will have the opportunity to create their own project, carry out the data collection, analyze the data, and present their findings. Students will also have the opportunity to assist other teammates in data collection. Students will learn how to use microscopes, taxonomic keys, thermometers, mesh sieves, Secchi disk, nets, proper safety gear along with other necessary tools. 

Carri has been a science teacher with the Fairbanks North star Borough School District for five years. She has a B.S. in Fisheries Science and a M.Ed. in Secondary Education. She worked with the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Marine Science conducting field research in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Carri has been an avid divemaster for almost six years diving in Alaska, the U.S. and abroad. 

Hilary Nichols grew up in the suburbs near Portland, Oregon and I always loved exploring the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Her dad would take her fishing and Hilary would spend more time playing in the mud and trying to find critters than actually fishing.

When she came to UAF to get her bachelors degree in Biological Sciences, she started working in a marine benthic ecology lab (we look at the communities of critters that live on the sea floor). She spent summers in remote areas of Alaska working in fish camps for US Fish and Wildlife, and winters going to school and working in the lab. After graduation, Hilary took on more responsibility and started doing fieldwork for the lab. She is now lab manager, taxonomist (identifying “bugs”) and field lead.   Hilary’s lab’s current projects include surveying the northeastern Chukchi Sea (Arctic Ocean) and monitoring Port Valdez at the Alaska oil pipeline terminus.  

While working as a technician at UAF, Hilary had the opportunity to share her love of benthic critters both in Fairbanks and in other areas of Alaska. In 2009 she got to go up to the North Slope for a tour through rural villages showing the children what research we had been doing in the Arctic. She also participated in Outdoor Days and Campus Research Day.

On Hilary’s time off she enjoys swimming (she swam for the UAF Nanooks from 2005-2007), spending time outside, and doing anything with her 2-year-old son.

"Worms rule!!"